Is there a way to accurately locate an IP address without being part of law enforcement?

[brwainer]

5 minutes ago, Jeffy said:

What I meant was there are several IP locating websites that correctly identify your IP. But if VPN is on, the VPN IP address is tracked on these websites. 

The type of locating you are talking about, like finding someone's IP address based on their skype or whatever username, is a different type of locating from finding someone's physical adress from their IP

[KuJoe]

The IP can provide quite a bit of information about the person and their location but it takes some work to get the address for that person. It's not impossible for a civilian to get it but it's not as easy as they make it look in movies.

[KuJoe]

3 hours ago, TheMidnightNarwhal said:

-snip-

Why are you posting an IP for a government computer?

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

6 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

Why are you posting an IP for a government computer?

 

Because it's the computer I'm on? Probably not a good example though, I'm not at home right now.

[KuJoe]

11 minutes ago, TheMidnightNarwhal said:

Because it's the computer I'm on? Probably not a good example though, I'm not at home right now.

Yeah it looks like that's the public IP for their NAT'ed network so it is a bad example.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

56 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

Yeah it looks like that's the public IP for their NAT'ed network so it is a bad example.

 

Still, it's not possible. I'll give you my real IP and I bet you won't even be able to find the street I'm on.

[KuJoe]

13 hours ago, TheMidnightNarwhal said:

Still, it's not possible. I'll give you my real IP and I bet you won't even be able to find the street I'm on.

It's definitely possible, I just have no interest in it. It's not as simple as plugging it into a website, it does take time and effort.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

6 hours ago, KuJoe said:

It's definitely possible, I just have no interest in it. It's not as simple as plugging it into a website, it does take time and effort.

 

The possibilty we're talking about here is like 1%, I see what you mean, it's possible, but still, you probably won't even be able to in the end.

[KuJoe]

1 hour ago, TheMidnightNarwhal said:

The possibilty we're talking about here is like 1%, I see what you mean, it's possible, but still, you probably won't even be able to in the end.

You don't really live on Rue Auguste-Renoir do you?

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

35 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

You don't really live on Rue Auguste-Renoir do you?

Yes. As the coordinates under my avatar shows.

[KuJoe]

11 minutes ago, TheMidnightNarwhal said:

Yes. As the coordinates under my avatar shows.

Then why are you worried about your IP address when all they really need is your username? I'm a bit confused (and tired which might contribute to it).

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

11 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

Then why are you worried about your IP address when all they really need is your username? I'm a bit confused (and tired which might contribute to it).

 

What, that's not the point. I'm not worried, the point of this thread was wondering why or how by genuine curiosity.

[KuJoe]

1 minute ago, TheMidnightNarwhal said:

What, that's not the point. I'm not worried, the point of this thread was wondering why or how but genuine curiosity.

Oh OK. Social engineering is the easiest/fastest option. I have no experience with Videotron though so I don't know how they operate.

[Mark77]

Due to chronic shortages of IP addresses, and advances in networking, many ISPs operate 'flat' networks right now where they basically use Ethernet based switching, as opposed to IP routing throughout their entire networks.  So the IP address you receive from a DHCP request doesn't correspond to any logical or physical location in the network. 

 

Also, its not really any priority of ISPs to keep their inverse DNS records updated at all.  Especially in light of the use of 'flat' networks as I described above.

 

So no, IP addresses do not correspond to repeatable physical locations.  The only sort of 'geolocation' that actually works is that which uses GPS receivers in the devices themselves, ie: a smartphone which has a GPS receiver and may send that information to an app's backend database or similar.  Even then, tunnels and VPNs can obsfucate things.