How Accurate is IP Address Lookup?

Is IP Address Lookup accurate?

People often ask this question: if I perform an IP address lookup, then am I going to find the physical location that the user is assigned to the IP? Yes. You can find the “location”, but be aware of any IP address database that will not give you the exact physical postal address of the IP address that you search for. No IP Locator is 100 percent accurate, and no IP Search can provide a result with an exact postal mailing address.

Through our IP Locator, you can get information of where someone is communicating with you through the Internet, and you can get pretty close to finding someone’s location, but not as accurate as you think. At best, the result is some five or six miles away from the exact address. You are not going to find something like: Mr. Smith Johnson, 245 Apple Avenue, XXX City, XXX State. An IP Search will not give you anyone’s name and physical mailing address, because that would be a violation of their privacy. You will find the city in which the user of the IP is located, the region and the country.

Usually, the results of an IP Address Search include the following:

  • Country
  • Region
  • City
  • Postal code
  • Longitude and latitude

and it may also include some extra information, such as:

  • Host Name
  • Time Zone
  • ISP
  • Domain Name
  • Net Speed
  • IP Decimal

If you want to get an exact physical address of an IP address, you would need to contact the ISP (Internet Service Provider) who manages the IP address. But an ISP is not going to release the information to you without a police warrant, or a court order to force them to do so. If you received an offensive email, or is hacked by someone on the Internet, the best you can do is to file a complaint with the ISP and forward them the IP address and other information.