Is there a way to find a company's IP?

[Moira]

I have a personal blog - nothing to get exited about and nothing that would really be of interest to my employers, just family news and photos etc. Nevertheless, I don't particularly want colleagues to necessarily have access to viewing it.

At the moment I don't have internet access at work, though that may change as I have been given some extra responsibilities at work and over xmas I will be switching from taking incoming calls to doing admin work.

My web hoster supports PHP and I know how to add a script preventing a particular IP from viewing my page (the index page should be enough).

What I'm wondering is, if there is any way I can find out this company's IP address which I need to add such a script, without the option of finding out from email which at the moment I don't have?

[JPnyc]

Well the easiest way I can think of, would be to get at a machine on your company lan which does have access and go to whatismyip.com or .org. Do you know who provides their net access?

[DjM]

I have a personal blog - nothing to get exited about and nothing that would really be of interest to my employers, just family news and photos etc. Nevertheless, I don't particularly want colleagues to necessarily have access to viewing it.

At the moment I don't have internet access at work, though that may change as I have been given some extra responsibilities at work and over xmas I will be switching from taking incoming calls to doing admin work.

My web hoster supports PHP and I know how to add a script preventing a particular IP from viewing my page (the index page should be enough).

What I'm wondering is, if there is any way I can find out this company's IP address which I need to add such a script, without the option of finding out from email which at the moment I don't have?

Well, not much info here to work with but I'll give it a shot. First, I am going to assume that your company is using a firewall which will provide NAT'ing. In short all people going out bound from your company will be going through this device so it's IP is the only one you have to block. Check around and see if you can get someone to give you the DNS name for the firewall then do an nslookup of the name, that will give you the IP, or IP's that you need to script.

Cheers:

[Moira]

I don't know who provides their net access, all I can say is that the company in question is SiteL, based in Newcastle.

The last time I did this, I got the info from email properties. Probably I need to see if I get email or net access and go to somewhere like WhatismyIP.com. I realise it's not a lot to work on - and that in all likelihood I will need to look at a machine which does have net access privileges.

[nihil]

Moira,

Maybe I am missing something here? Why do you assume that people would look at your blog from your workplace.........................I would have thought it more likely that the corporate AUP would forbid visiting private blogs, e-mail and the like?

Anyway, I would expect your colleagues to use their home ISP services?

As for your employers, if they know it is there, they will just use another IP?

Have you thought about some sort of password protection or access control?

[JPnyc]

Right, there's not much that I can think of to do, from a machine that has no net access. If there's a way to get the external lan IP from a single machine without internet access, I don't know it. But then, there's lots of things I dunno. We'll just add this to the list.

[Moira]

Maybe I'm getting paranoid, but my BCS newletters and Slashdot articles have suddenly started to stress how employers (particularly prospective employers) now search the internet for information on their employees, particularly sites like MySpace and YouTube.

People shouldn't be accessing stuff like that at work, but they do a lot of things they shouldn't and IT or HR would always find an excuse.

I don't have anything at all to hide - don't get me wrong - I just value privacy. I have enabled password protected pages which I really don't want people reading - although google could find them by chance I suppose - but I wouldn't want to do that for the site as a whole because it would stop legitimate visitors accessing web pages.

I realise you can't find the IP of a company from a machine with no internet access - what I'd thought was, I could maybe find it from this PC here, if I knew the company name etc.

[HTRegz]

Maybe I'm getting paranoid, but my BCS newletters and Slashdot articles have suddenly started to stress how employers (particularly prospective employers) now search the internet for information on their employees, particularly sites like MySpace and YouTube.

It all goes back to if you wouldn't say it at work or in an interview... don't put it out for the public to read... Put it in a paper journal and lock it away...

There was a Cosmo (the girlfriend buys them so I read them to laugh (Side Note: I still wonder how people are dumb enough to believe anything Cosmo suggests)) that had a great article about a woman who came home drunk and wrote a blog post making fun of the fashion industry.... The problem... She was an Editor for a fashion magazine..

I'm quite easy to find online... It's really no secret as to who I am.. Before my first interview with my employer, I was heavily researched... When you do a Google search for my name, you find a portfolio website( outdated now) .. it links to my other sites which includes my blogs... or I should say blog as I stopped having a personal blog when I realized the internet wasn't for that....

The people that have personal blogs where they share life stories.. what's going on.. their rants and their beliefs are just asking for trouble... Let's say you're getting married...You put a big blog post about how your soon to be husband wants children and you don't... I could think that you're dedicated to your career and want to be focused... but I could also think you hate children. If you justify it by saying you want to wait until you're with an employer that offers maternity leave.. Your current employer now things you're already job hunting... If they have to cut someone, there's a good chance your name will come up since they think you're planning to leave and they wouldn't want to lose two experienced people.. A prospective employer that you are interviewing with may see it and think you're applying to work for them not out of interest but because their benefits package includes maternity leave... If they don't offer it, maybe they'll think you're gonna leave them as soon as you plan children..

Let's get a little more basic than that... You post pictures from a recent camping trip.. Yourself and your SO... You're white and your SO is black... if a racist is researching you for the Company (privately racist which is why they can work in HR)... suddenly your name comes off the list... Maybe you're gay/lesbian and a bigot sees your resume and researches you.. You've mentioned going out with your partner.. They scratch you off the candidates list..

You mention you don't like recent tax changes.. and your prospective employer is benefiting from those changes.

You comment on your child's teacher... who happens to be a complete idiot this year... What happens if the person who's researching you has a teacher for a spouse.

Also as nihil said... They aren't going to check your blog from work... It's most likely going to be from home.

Peace,
HT

[mohaughn]

I don't have anything at all to hide - don't get me wrong - I just value privacy. I have enabled password protected pages which I really don't want people reading - although google could find them by chance I suppose - but I wouldn't want to do that for the site as a whole because it would stop legitimate visitors accessing web pages.

If you value privacy why do you have a blog? I like my online privacy, and I will never have a blog. Simple eh? Or you could use a service that requires the other people to be authorized, like setting your myspace to private... But if you really want online privacy, don't blog, don't use myspace, etc...

Also, I'm familiar with Sitel. We used to use them for our tier1 exchange client helpdesk. Had to fire them though, way to many issues and just plain bad phone support.

[Moira]

Actually I don't think they'd bother from home - people might more likely have a look at work where they're bored, I'd think at home they would have better things to do.

I don't put anything on that even relates to where I work in any case - I'm not that stupid, and while it's a great platform to practise freedom of speech, any opinions are nothing I wouldn't say to anyone at work anyway.

In fact, it's pretty boring really. It's more the embarrassment I'd seek to avoid and it was the technical question of can you find out a company's IP address that intrigued me more than anything.

Dammit, I'll probably get a spate of visitors now which is exactly what I didn't want

How would you go about finding anyone's IP for that matter? The opposite way round isn't so difficult, ie get an IP and look it up in the RIPE whois (unless they opted out).