Whether you’re a privacy-conscious consumer or a business owner, knowing how to search IP addresses is a valuable tool. It can help you avoid unauthorized use of your device and identify hackers who are using your computer or network. In this article, we walk through multiple methods of finding someone’s IP address, including using an IP lookup tool, checking the full header of an incoming email, and running various command prompts on macOS, Windows, and Android devices.

IP addresses are a unique string of numbers that are assigned to each device that can connect to the Internet—that includes phones, computers, tablets, TVs, game consoles, and more. Your private IP address is only known to you and the devices connected to your home or office Wi-Fi network, but it’s easy for advertisers, hackers, and even your ISP to find your public IP address by using digital breadcrumbs you leave behind as you browse the web.

Searching for IP Information: Search IP Address

The IP address of a website is how websites know where to send information when you visit it. When you type google[dot]com into your browser, a Domain Name Service (DNS) translates the domain name into the string of numbers that represent Google’s public IP address.

IP geolocation is the process of pairing an IP address with a physical location, usually in a city and country. There are many reasons you might want to find out a person’s geolocation, including ecommerce websites needing to know where their customers are located to provide relevant content, displaying different language or pre-populating forms based on customer location, and fighting illegal activity like hacking and spamming by tracking down the sources of an attack.