How to Look up an IP Address Owner

Every internet protocol (IP) address used on the internet is registered to an owner. The owner may be an individual or a representative of a larger organization such as an internet service provider. Many websites don't conceal their ownership, so you can look up this public information to find the owner. However, some services allow the owner to remain anonymous. As a result, their contact information and name are not easily found.

ARIN WHOIS service queries the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) for an IP address and displays who owns the IP address and other information such as a contact number, a list of other IP addresses in that range with the same owner, and dates of registration.

For example, for the 216.58.194.78 IP address, ARIN WHOIS says that the owner is Google and its IP range falls between 216.58.192.0 and 216.58.223.255.

Some services are similar to ARIN WHOIS, but they can search for the website owner even when the website's IP address is unknown. Examples include UltraTools, Register.com, GoDaddy, and DomainTools.

To use ARIN WHOIS to find the owner of an IP address, convert the website to its IP address using a ping command in the Windows command prompt. With the command prompt open, type the following to find the website's IP address:

ping websitename.com

Replace websitename with the website you want to find the IP address for.

Some IP address ranges are reserved for use on private networks or for internet research. Attempting to look up these IP addresses in Whois returns an owner such as Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). However, these same addresses are employed on many home and business networks worldwide. To find who owns a private IP address in an organization, contact their network system administrator.