Free IP Address Search
Any device connected to the Internet is identified by a unique binary number called the IP address, which is represented in decimal format as four sets of numbers from 0 to 255. IP address enables one to locate the sender of an email or to track a device connected to the Internet by looking up and tracking its IP address. IP address search or geolocation can find out the exact physical location of the device: its country, region, city, postal code, latitude, longitude and time zone.
IP address search is provided by many websites for free. Some applications can be downloaded to your PC while some others allow conducting the searches directly from their sites. Most of these web sites have large databases that can retrieve the exact information you need from the major domain name extensions, such as .org, .com, .net, .gov, .edu, etc.; searches are also available for the lesser known domain names.
Free IP address search can be done through various tools that use the WHOIS system. The WHOIS system is a database query service that can retrieve the registration information of an IP address and the details of its owner, a domain name, and an autonomous system number. Originally, it was a command line interface application. As the Internet became a common phenomenon, the WHOIS lookup became web-based queries. The WHOIS system is a person locator with which you can find out the details of a person who has registered a particular domain name or sent an email; it is a name search as well as location search which provides basic DNS information such as the name, address, and contact information of the registrant, registrar name or the company from which the domain was purchased, dates of creation and expiry of the domain, etc. With the help of the WHOIS searches, you can also find out the IP address range, the set of IP addresses associated with a particular domain name.
There are many public sites that offer the WHOIS query services. These tools help one to find out the IP addresses of websites, email or instant message senders, internet service providers, cell phone owners, and any device connected to the Internet. There are region specific WHOIS search web sites which can give the details of a particular country or city. Some popular web-based WHOIS search tools are ARIN, RIPE, and APNIC. However, all WHOIS search tools are not free; some require registration fee or service fee.