Hot do I trace an IP address?

[Matthew Thompson]

> In message <3a9156d4.9420979 at news.axxent.ca>, Rey Carolino
> <rcarolino at mscm.ca> writes
> >I have an IP address that does not resolve to a hostname.  I need to

> nslookup  your.ip.address
> 
> to get hostname.
> 
> Then do a whois on the hostname

Slight problem there.

I find that the best way to find an IP address' owner is to go to
http://www.arin.net/whois/index.html and check there. That will usually tell
you who that address block is assigned to - get ready for a few hops around
different registries.

For instance 213.38.23.135 (www.fairplay.co.uk) in ARIN's whois tells me
that it's assigned to RIPE and to visit http://www.ripe.net/db/whois.html
which tells me that among other things the responsible person is 

person:      Matthew Thompson
address:     Fairplay Publications

Me!

Some registries are quite "deep" in so for Korean addresses you need to
check ARIN, APNIC and then the Korean NIC. Others like Europe (RIPE) are
just two levels deep.

M at t :o)