How to Contact the Owner of an IP Address

In today's world of users having many devices the need to know how to lookup the owner of an IP address has only increased. The good news is that the owner of the IP address is public and can be looked up for free. In this article we will detail how to lookup the owner of an IP address and some things to remember when doing so.

One thing to understand before looking up an IP address is that there are two types of IP address. Private IP address are internal to your network and the owner is not listed online. Private IP addresses are owned by whoever owns the network you are on. If you have access to the internet then you will have a public IP address and the owner of that IP can be looked up.

Why you may want to lookup the owner of an IP address:​

There are many reasons a user might want to lookup an IP address but most are likely technical in nature. Before engaging with the owner of an IP address you need to remember that IP addresses are often leased from one company to another so if you are experiencing abuse the owner may not be aware their IP address being used for negative purposes.

Reasons to lookup an IP address​

• Network troubleshoot: Identify the source of network problems
  
  
• Report abuse: Report abuse such as spam, excessive crawling or other activities from the IP address
  
  
• Business questions: Contact the business to discuss methods or opportunities

​

How to lookup an IP address​

The first step in looking up the owner of an IP address is obtaining the IP address. If you are experience abuse from an IP address then you should have a log file that provides the IP address. If you are experiencing harassment from an online users then you will need to contact the website to report the user. Once you have the IP address then the process is fairly straight forward.

Steps to looking up an IP address owner:​

1. Perform an IP lookup on the IP address to retrieve geolocation data on the IP
   
   
2. Conduct an IP Whois lookup on the IP address to retrieve ownership information

​

Information provided by an IP WHOIS Lookup​

• Organization: The registered owner of the IP address
  
  
• Organization address: The mailing address associated with the IP address owner
  
  
• Organization phone number: The phone number of the organization that owns the IP address
  
  
• Abuse mailing address: The mailing address used to report abuse form the IP address
  
  
• Abuse email address: The email address used to report abuse from the IP address
  
  
• Technical email address: The email address where technical information regarding the IP address should be sent
  
  
• Technical phone number: The phone number that should be used to contact the organization regarding technical matters

The recommendation is to use the email address to contact the IP address owner. Using an email address creates a paper trail that may be useful later. If the request is urgent then you can call using the phone number listed. If the IP address has been assigned to an online user then the contact information is likely their ISP.

If you have questions then please be share to leave a comment or post in the forums.