Is it possible??

[Showtime8000]

Me and my friend were discussing about the power of some WhoIS tools. Is there a way an ISP can track your physical location (city, state, etc) using your IP? Did they use that method to track down the guy who wrote the Melissa virus?

[Guus]

Well, ISP's keep track which subscriber uses which IP at any given time. And since they have their customers' accounting details, including billing-address ...

[valhallen]

but what about peps using free isp's?
do they store the number from which the original call to conect to the internet came from?

I'd say so

v_Ln

[Solaris9]

It depend I dont understand what yer talking about

1. Cable, DSL, Other 'Always On Connections'

With an 'Always On' connection what your ISP does it have it's webpage or DHCP or whatever it feels like, gain information (i.e. serial # for your HD, VD, CPU, etc) then stores it in a DB along with your current IP (usually static for the moment), account name, address, name, phone, etc. Then when you get disconnected and suddenly connect again your IP is obviously going to change if someone else did the samebefore you and lets say they did. Now you have a new IP the ISP usues the same script to gather info and if it matches anothers info (yours previously) it will update the DB with your new IP. I can find out the exact schematics of it, my neighboor is a network engineer with Time Warner cable and he does all this ****.

2. Dynamic conenctions (dial up, ISDN)

When you put in your username and password the login to your PPP (dial up) account it registers with your ISP who keeps it in a database along with all the other IP's you have had and when and from what # you connected from. My neighboor worked for CoreComm previously until they decided that the younger more inexperienced ******* deserves a chance to be head of Network/PPP managment.

Have fun

[Showtime8000]

Would the ISP use a database collection or a specific tool to determine location?

[Solaris9]

they mostly use db's

my neighboor was just telling me that right now Time Warner is developing a new 'tool' that sits in each green box for your CATV and high speed inet that keeps track of all computers IP addresses that are hooked up to that green box. So in that aspect yes they use a tool and with dialups they can trace the phone # unless you jam them, or play ring-around-the-world with different phone cards and ****.

[darkes]

Originally posted here by valhallen
but what about peps using free isp's?
do they store the number from which the original call to conect to the internet came from?

I'd say so

v_Ln

Yes, it has been a legal requirement in the UK for all UK ISPs to log and record this for a couple of years or so (the RIP act). The EU has also recently passed legislation requiring all member states to do the same, and even Canada is thinking of passing similar legislation.
These laws have been introduced as anti terrorist legislation.
Difficult to know where to draw the line here - is a government entitled to snoop on everyones internet activity for security reasons, or is this a gross invasion of personal privacy?

[Phactorial]

Yes, it would be very easy to track down your location (very closely) based on your IP address. There are many whois database for this, such as the huge ARIN database.

[chicken12]

there is a whois on antionline u need there ip address and it will tell u there country,state,city .... i have seen heard of some that put it down to your region

[morfius]

Everyone else has answered if they can track you down from your ip to your country, state, city. I'll answer the second question.

The person who wrote the melissa virus, or one of the variations used microsoft word to edit the macro. Little did that person know that ms word embeds a GUID into the file, showing the MAC address of the computer. And from the MAC address the FBI tracked em.

Please correct me if i'm wrong, i feel a bit hazzy at the moment.