We often hear the term “IP address”. But how many of us show our willingness to know what it is and how it helps one?.

IP stands for Internet Protocol and describes a set of standards and requirements for creating and transmitting data packets, or datagrams across networks.

In simple words, if I want to download a file from the Internet, then my computer should have an address so that the other networks on the Internet can find and locate my laptop to send the data to me. That address of my computer is known as an IP address.

Why Would Someone Want To Trace Your IP Address?

This question may have varied answers depending on your intention:

1. People or businesses with wrong intentions may use your IP address to commit some crime over the internet like cyberbullying. A hacker may use your IP address to hack into your system, track your location, etc.

2. People or businesses which are genuine will use your IP address to target you with better offers and ads. IP addresses can also be used to create a secure connection between two or more devices.

Though there are many ways to get someone’s IP address here, I would like to discuss the top 3 tricks to get someone’s IP address.

1. The IP Address from an email

Some email service providers or self-hosted mail servers may reveal the IP address. We can trace the sender’s IP address from the mail headers

In the settings of our email, we can find an option naming “headers,” by turning it on, it shows us the IP address of the sender along with other data. Here are the steps required for each of the email platforms:

GMAIL 

1. 1. Open the message
2. 2. Click on the 3 dots next to the Reply button
3. 3. Select Show Original and you will see the email header
4. 4. Find ” Received: from”, here you will find the IP address enclosed in the square brackets [].
5. In case it has more than one Received patterns, then you need to choose the last one as it will be the actual IP address of the sender.

HOTMAIL

1. Find the email you want to track then right-click on it and a drop-down menu will appear, click on the View message source option.
2. Now check:

a. If you find a header with X-Originating-IP followed by the IP address then that is the IP address of the sender.

b. If the previous method fails work then check for “Received: from” which is followed by the IP address of the sender.

c. In the case of multiple “Received: from” headers, you need to reject the ones having proxy.com

YAHOO! MAIL

1. Open the received mail then click on View Full Header option.
2. Find “Received: from” which is followed by the sender’s IP address enclosed in square brackets [].

In case there is more than one “Received: from” then select the one which is the last.

2. The online IP lookup tool

One of the easiest ways to get someone’s IP address is by using some websites like IPblogger.org, WhatIsMyIPAddress.com, etc.

There are many such websites that one can find on the Internet, like techieplus.net. These websites offer help in finding the IP address most easily.

3. Using command prompt

On Windows devices, we can find an IP address for a website with the command prompt. From the search box in the Start menu, we can see the command prompt. By opening the command prompt, we will notice the black DOS screen. On the command prompt screen, we type the words “ping host address,”. 

For example, “ping www.quora.com” now, the computer will try to find the server for that site and display the IP address. A ping attempt to establish a connection between our device and the victim’s device.

After knowing the tricks about finding someone’s IP address, you must be worried about how to conceal your IP address. So, here’s one reliable way to do so - by using a VPN service. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network.

When you connect to the VPN, you will be assigned a new IP address that hides your real one. This will prevent third parties from monitoring your online activities. Thus, VPN can encrypt your internet traffic and allow you to exchange data with other users safely.

3.Using Facebook

1.  Establish a connection with the user whose IP address you want to find out over Facebook chat.
2. Start a chat with the user and make sure that they remain online, then open the command prompt window and type the command “netstat -an” and press enter.
3. The user IP address will appear in a short period but remember to close all other windows before you execute the command else, it may return some other IP address.

Conclusion

Though these tricks of finding IP addresses are simple, one must not use these tricks to unnecessarily infringe the privacy of others.

Happy browsing!