What Can Someone Do With Your IP Address? | CactusVPN
Privacy is more important than ever nowadays – especially on the Internet. In fact, you’ll hear tons of people and read dozens of articles talking about how vital it is to hide your IP address when you’re online.
But what can someone do with your IP address, actually?
Table of contents
How Can People Find Your IP Address?
So, What Can Someone Do With Your IP Address?
Can My IP Address Be Hacked and Used?
Can Someone Remotely Access My Computer With My IP Address?
How to Protect Your IP Address from Hackers, Advertisers, and Surveillance
What to Do If Someone Has Your IP Address
Here’s all you need to know:
What Is an IP Address?
An IP (Internet Protocol) address acts as an identifier for the device you use to access the web. That helps websites know exactly where to send the data you ask for through connection sides just identifying your device, your IP address also reveals your geo-location since it contains info like:What country you are city you are your ISP your ZIP code is.
The easiest way for someone to find your IP address is if you torrent files, that makes it very simple for every member of the Swarm (the total number of seeders and leechers) to see your IP address. They just need to check the list of peers, and they can see your whole address right there – along with the type and version of the torrent client you’re, if you send an email to anyone, they can just check the email message’s header since it might contain your IP address. Not all email services reveal IP addresses, though. For example, Gmail doesn’t do that (they only show their mail server’s address), but Yahoo! and Microsoft Outlook do. A more unconventional way for someone to find your IP address is if you run a website, and host it on your own server at home. They can just open their operating system’s command prompt, and ping the website’s domain. When they do that, the command prompt will return the website’s IP ternatively, they could just use an online IP lookup tool to do the same course, if you use a data center server to host your website, you don’t need to worry about that.
Here are other “minor” ways someone could find your real IP address:
By checking the web server logs of the websites you visit. Don’t forget – every website you access sees and stores your IP address. Of course, only website owners and admins can see that info – or pretty much anyone if the website suffers a data HTML bugs can reveal your IP address when you open an email or view an image in said email. This isn’t exactly a “bug, ” but a piece of code in a transparent image that’s present in an email. People can use services like WhoReadMe to attach such an image to the emails they send. If you interact with the message, the service will alert the sender, and will also show them your location (so, your IP address) someone is in your home, and are using your WiFi network, they can just use Google, and type “what is my IP address, ” and they’ll instantly see, blog, and gaming server admins can see your real IP address. That’s how they block you, after teracting with any online ad (especially on social media) will reveal your IP address to meone could use a tool like Grabify to create a link to a legit website, and send it to you. Clicking on the link takes you to a real website, but will also allow the person who sent it to track info about you, including your IP address.
Here are the main ways your online experience can take a hit if someone has your IP address:
Restrict Your Access to Certain Services
“If someone has my IP address what can they do to my online access? ”
Well, content providers can use your IP address to target you with geo-blocks – content restrictions that essentially prevent you from accessing a web page or the content on a website if you’re from a blacklisted geographical region.
Like we already mentioned, your IP address leaks your geo-location, and any website you send connection requests to or visit will see and log your IP address.
That’s how services like Netflix or Hulu keep people from accessing US content from other countries, for example.
Spam You With “Personalized” Ads
Ever looked up an article reviewing the best vacuum cleaners, read it and closed it, only to later see tons of vacuum cleaner ads on your social media feed?
The vacuum cleaner is just an example – really, anything goes with that statement.
Well, that creepy “coincidence” is actually how advertisers track you on the web, and spam you with ads you “might” be interested in.
Advertisers normally use tracking pixels, but they also make use of your IP address too. With it, they can deliver location-based ads that are in your native language.
Some people might find that useful, but for most of us it feels like an invasion of our privacy.
Add It to a Database and Sell It on the Dark Web
Some hackers might collect IP addresses to sell them on the dark web for a profit.
Naturally, a cybercriminal won’t sell just your IP address. That’s not really worth much to anyone. Instead, they’ll compile a whole database containing user data they stole from various websites – and that data includes your IP address.
Still, that doesn’t mean you should take this lightly. If someone buys your IP address on the dark web, it’s not because they have good intentions with it. They’ll either try to use it to impersonate you, find out personal info about you, or use it in scams.
Find Limited Personal Info About You
Don’t think someone could find your name, physical address, and phone number by just knowing your IP address.
At most, they’d be able to pinpoint your location to a specific area – a country, city, or even a neighborhood.
Still, if the cybercriminal is skilled enough, they could find out who your ISP is from your IP address, and use phishing and vishing attacks against them to find out your personal details. Stuff like that has happened before, so it’s no speculation.
Cyberstalkers who are persistent enough could also try using your IP address to track your online actions, and find more personal information about you. Though, again, that would only work if they manage to trick your ISP into revealing sensitive data, or hack them to get it.
DoS/DDoS Your Network
If a cybercriminal knows your IP address, they can DDoS/DoS you – essentially flood your network with unwanted traffic to the point where your web connection goes down.
This tends to happen a lot in online gaming – with upset players DoS/DDoS-ing other players.
Sue You for Copyright Infringement
Yep, stuff like that can happen if you live in a country where the law is very tough on torrenting – like the US, for instance.
Torrent monitoring and copyright agencies might keep an eye on torrent traffic, and single out your IP address. If they do that, they can find out who your ISP is, and get in touch with them to ask them to hande over your contact details and personal information.
Then, depending on how serious your “torrenting crime” is, they might just threaten you with DMCA notices, or they could sue you directly.
Prevent You from Playing Online Games
This just applies to online games. Basically, an admin who’s a sore loser might ban you from the match.
Now, when they ban you, they’re actually banning your IP address. Since the gaming server blacklists it, you can’t reconnect to it anymore until someone lifts the ban.
“Can My IP Address Be Hacked and Used? ”
Not exactly, though you might see people talking about “IP hacks” online.
However, a cybercriminal can’t exactly hack an IP address. It’s just a number, not software or hardware.
“Okay, so what can a hacker do with an IP address then? ”
Well, a cybercriminal could theoretically use your IP address. To do that, they’d need to hack your device, therefore getting access to its IP address. That, or they could get access to your home WiFi network – which they can easily do if you don’t secure it properly.
Once they’re using your network or device, they can start doing illegal stuff with your IP address – like making death threats or downloading illegal torrents, child pornography, or content that might threaten the country’s national security.
“Can Someone Remotely Access My Computer With My IP Address? ”
It depends.
Usually, no. Just knowing someone’s IP address isn’t exactly enough to remotely hack their devices.
Still, a very skilled cybercriminal could use your IP address to scan for open ports associated with it. If you’re not familiar with ports, just think of them as pipelines data flows through into and out of your network and device.
If a hacker were to manage to find an open port, and gain control over it (and many others), they might have a way to remotely control your computer. However, that can only happen if your operating system is out of date, you don’t use antivirus/antimalware software, and you turned your firewall off.
Another thing a cybercriminal could do is use your IP address to learn personal info about you and your browsing habits, and use phishing methods to try and trick you into installing malicious software on your device. If they’re successful, they can get remote access to your device.
Here are some good ways to hide your IP address to make sure nobody can track or steal it:
1. Use a VPN Service
A VPN is an online service you can use to quickly and easily hide your IP address. All you need to do is connect to a VPN server, and it will automatically replace your real IP address with its own address.
Before committing to a VPN, it’s a good idea to test the connection well to make sure it doesn’t suffer any IP leaks.
Also, using a VPN with a Kill Switch is preferable. That way, if you ever lose your VPN connection for any reason, you won’t need to worry about anyone seeing your real IP address since the VPN will automatically cut off your web access until the connection is running again.
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2. Use a Proxy Server
Much like a VPN, a proxy server will also hide your IP address whenever you connect to it. However, it doesn’t offer the same level of security VPNs do.
So you don’t get high-end encryption that properly secures your traffic and data. Also, proxy servers often tend to be slower than VPN servers, so keep that in mind.
If you’re worried about that, but still want to use a proxy server, consider getting a VPN whose servers double as proxy servers – like CactusVPN, for instance.
3. Switch WiFi Networks
If you’re worried someone is targeting your IP address, and you have access to multiple WiFi networks, just switch between them. The moment you connect to a network, you’ll get a new IP address.
Of course, this isn’t an ideal solution. Public WiFi is pretty risky and full of cyber threats since most networks don’t use any kind of encryption.
4. Switch to Mobile Data
If you don’t have any WiFi networks you can use (can happen if you’re at home), another way to hide your IP address is to just turn on your mobile data.
When you do that, you’ll start using your cell phone provider’s network, so you’ll get a new IP address.
5. Talk With Your ISP
Since your ISP is the one who assigns IP addresses to you, it’s obvious you need to talk with them if you want to change it.
You could try seeing if they’d be willing to offer you a dynamic IP address – basically an address that changes every single time you go on the web.
Of course, if your ISP agrees, they might charge you more for that. And they might have you answer a few questions or fill out some forms too.
What About Tor?
Sure, Tor can also hide your IP address. It’s an anonymity network, after all.
However, there’s one big problem with it – the network already had a flaw some time ago that leaked users’ real IP addresses.
True, it was fixed, but who knows if an issue like that will show up again? The last thing you want is randomly exposing your IP address without even knowing it.
Besides that, you’ll also have to put up with other issues like the lack of encryption on the exit relay, having to only use the Tor browser, and slow speeds since there aren’t enough relays to support the huge number of Tor users.
Well, it’s pretty obvious – change it. You can do that with a VPN or proxy, or by asking your ISP to do it for you.
Other than that, there’s not much you can do. If you fear a cybercriminal is using your address to download or do illegal things, it’s best to alert the authorities as soon as possible.
What Can Someone Do With Your IP Address? The Bottom Line
Quite a lot – they can use it to find out approximate details about your location (country, city, ZIP code, ISP), restrict your access to certain websites or gaming servers, and target you with annoying ads.
As for how someone can find your IP address, they can try many things – from using IP lookup tools and checking the list of peers on torrent clients to using email HTML bugs and online ads.
To make sure your privacy stays intact, you should use a VPN or a proxy server to hide your IP address whenever you’re on the web.
What does an IP address tell you and how it can put you at risk | Norton
April 23, 2021
Cars have VINs. Humans have Social Security numbers. And our internet-connected devices have unique identifiers, too — Internet Protocol addresses, commonly known as IP addresses.
Similar to those other identifiers in our lives, an IP address does reveal a little bit about you, namely your geolocation.
Here, we’ll dig further into the meaning, purpose, and inner workings of an IP address to explain just what does an IP address tell you — and others.
What is an IP address?
An IP address is a string of numbers assigned to an internet-connected device, much like an address on a house. Your computer network uses the IP address to communicate with other computers, websites, and all parts of cyberspace.
Essentially, IP addresses are how computers on the internet recognize one another. Your internet service provider (ISP) assigns IP addresses to your internet-connected devices, and every IP address is unique. Considering every single internet-connected device has an IP address, billions of IP addresses exist.
You can think of an IP address like a membership card to enter the World Wide Web. Every device that can connect to the internet is a member of the World Wide Web — computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, routers, etc. — and all have an IP address. Websites and computer networks require that form of identification for you to interact with them.
Understanding an IP address and how it works aside, it’s also important to understand the purpose of IP addresses in the first place.
What is the purpose of an IP address?
An IP address can be considered a digital address for your internet-connected devices, as it reveals your geolocation to help the internet deliver content that’s relevant to you.
For example, it’s due in part to your IP address that you see local restaurants pop up when you search “sushi restaurants. ”
How to find your IP address
To find your IP address, simply Google “what is my IP address. ” It’s as simple as that: The internet provides your IP address back to you. The internet knows your IP address because it’s assigned to your device and it is required to browse the internet.
Worth mentioning is that your IP address changes every time you connect to a different Wi-Fi network or router. Online users won’t even know the difference and, generally, they don’t need to — much like how they don’t necessarily need to know how to read an IP address.
Rather, online users should be aware of what information their IP address reveals.
What information does my IP address reveal?
IP addresses do reveal your geolocation, but not your precise location like a home address and never your name, phone number, or other precise personal information. Instead, IP addresses might reveal your city, ZIP code, or area code of where you are connecting to the internet at that moment — this is why IP addresses change every time you connect from a new location or using a new router.
And it’s generally your router’s IP address that is revealed, not the IP address of your internet-connected devices such as a computer, tablet, or mobile phone that communicate with a router to connect to the internet. Sure, these internet-connected devices share their IP address with your router, but your router uses its own IP address to grant your device access to the World Wide Web.
It’s for this reason that your IP address almost always reveals the geolocation of your ISP’s nearest servers — not your physical location at all — and your IP address also reveals the name of your ISP.
Finally, to put your mind at ease, we have answers to a few common IP address FAQs regarding what information an IP address reveals about you:
What does an IP address tell you? For the most part, an IP address tells you the city, ZIP code, or area code of your ISP, as well as your ISP’s name.
What can an IP address tell you? To some degree, your physical location and also the name of your ISP.
Can IP addresses reveal your identity? No, not outrightly. However, others can piece together bits of your identity, using your IP address and by following your online activity.
How others can find your IP address — and why they want to
For others to find your IP address, it is not as easy as searching “What is [insert name]’s IP address. ” It takes a bit more legwork. But it’s also not as difficult as some might think, considering we leave our digital footprints and, in turn, IP addresses behind online with every click.
Remember, IP addresses are like your membership card to the internet and are required to enter any website and webpage on it. So, every time you click something online it’s like signing a guestbook and your IP address is the signature you leave behind. This includes social media sites, internet forums, chatrooms, and blogs you comment on. All of these platforms can view your IP address.
Also, cybercriminals can find your IP address by hacking into your home network or placing a bug in email HTML.
For a more straightforward approach to find your IP address, others might simply borrow your device and Google “what is my IP address” or inspect the header of an email address. There are also IP lookup services, whereby users can simply copy and paste an IP address into a search bar and discover a person’s geolocation.
Authorities, including, law enforcement or fraud investigators, can also use subpoenas to contact your ISP and get your IP address.
But, why would other people want to know your IP address and what would they do with it?
Is it dangerous for people to know your IP address?
Since an IP address doesn’t outrightly reveal your personal information or confidential data, it’s generally not dangerous for people to know your IP address — but it all depends on who’s trying to access it.
Consider the following parties who might be interested in your IP address and why:
Authorities to piece together illegal activities
Employers to understand where you’re spending time online at work
Advertisers to target you with relevant products and services
Blacklist databases to block access from spammers
Retailers to cross-check your geolocation with your payment method’s mailing address
Chatrooms to block inappropriate users
Subscription services to block users from accessing content unavailable in their area or region
Hackers to install malware on your devices
Cybercriminals to put you at risk of Denial of Service attacks
Criminals who, if they already know your personal information, might call your ISP and commit a vishing attack
You might even want to use an IP address to confirm whether an online friend or virtual love interest resides where they say they do
As with most things in life, people’s intentions vary.
When it comes to others trying to find your IP address, some might have malicious intentions, such as to track you. Others, however, might be watching out for you, such as a well-intentioned bank confirming a transfer request is being submitted by you.
Finally, just because someone knows your IP address does not necessarily mean they will wind up on your doorstep. Still, you might want to take measures to protect your IP address.
How to protect your IP address
The simplest and most straightforward way to protect your IP address is to use a virtual private network (VPN) because this anonymizes your online activity using encryption. It also changes your IP address completely, placing your geolocation hundreds or maybe thousands of miles from where you actually are accessing the internet.
Talk about throwing someone off your digital tail.
The bottom line: IP addresses reveal geolocations and you can prevent this
No, IP addresses are not as sacred as our Social Security numbers, but it’s still worth understanding what an IP address reveals and also how to hide your IP address if you want to.
After all, being informed is a best practice when it comes to protecting our online privacy.
Cyber threats have evolved, and so have we.
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What Can Someone Do With Your IP Address in 2021?
Risks
What is an IP Address
How to See It
Access
How to Protect
What to Do
You know your IP address is important; we certainly bring it up often enough in our security guides. But why exactly is it so important?
If someone manages to get your IP address, they can do a lot of damage to your life, from sending you spam to attacking your computer. In this guide, we’ll show you all the ways that someone could use your IP address. In addition, we’ll give you practical advice on how to protect this valuable piece of information.
What Can Someone Do With Your IP Address?
Your IP address is a number that identifies you when you’re online. You need it to send and receive data, watch Netflix, or browse Wikipedia entries. Precisely because it’s so very useful, your IP address is a valuable piece of information.
What can someone do with it if they gain access to it? The possibilities range from minor inconveniences to full-on cyberattacks, and perhaps even physical attacks as well.
Send you personalized spam: Advertisers become more sophisticated every day. Lately, many advertisers have begun embedding tracking programs in online articles. These trackers record your IP address and send you targeted ads based on your browsing. For example, you might read an article about how to raise bonsai trees. The next thing you know, you’re getting emails from local nurseries.
Learn your geographic location: An IP address indicates what city you’re in. Once someone knows that, they may also be able to poke around online and find your actual address. Many home invaders keep an eye on social media so they know when homeowners go out of town. If they have IP addresses, it’s usually pretty easy to know which houses to hit, so be sure to secure your home while you’re away.
Restrict your access to certain services: Your geolocation isn’t just important to potential thieves. Many online services get this information from your IP address and restrict your access to their services. YouTube TV, for example, allows you to see local content only from the city where you live (unless you use a Youtube TV VPN to change your YouTube TV location, of course). Netflix knows what country you’re in and provides access only to that country’s library of shows and movies, unless you change your Netflix region with a Netflix VPN. Other companies charge different rates depending on where you live.
Prevent you from playing online games: If you happen to be playing against a game administrator and they’re unhappy when you beat them, they can ban you from the match, which may effectively blacklist your IP address on the entire site.
Execute a DoS/DDoS attack: With your IP address, someone can execute a DoS (denial of service) attack against you. Essentially, such attacks prevent you from accessing network resources, including a website you visit, online accounts, and even email. The most common method for such attacks is to flood your address with server requests, overloading and disabling your system with traffic. A DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack works similarly, only it involves multiple machines so the traffic is even more intense. That’s why many people use VPNs to block DDoS attacks.
Discover personal information about you: Identity thieves are constantly on the lookout for PII (personally identifiable information). What is PII? It’s information thieves can use to steal from you directly, or information they can use to impersonate you. This can include items like your Social Security number, phone number, mailing address, and birthdate, all valuable information for identity thieves. Your IP address isn’t PII, and a thief can’t use it to get PII directly. However, if a hacker knows your IP address, they can track down your ISP. They could then use a phishing attack to try and convince the ISP to turn over whatever PII it has on you. One sure way to prevent identity theft is to buy one of the best identity theft services.
Frame you for crimes: A skilled hacker can use your IP address to impersonate you online, routing activity through your address instead of their own. Ultimately, they could frame you for buying drugs, downloading child pornography, or even creating national security threats.
Sell it on the dark web: Not all thieves are looking to cash in by impersonating you. Some are happy just to steal your IP address and sell it on the dark web. You can protect yourself from this scenario, of course, if you sign up for one of our best identity theft protection with dark web monitoring.
Track your activity: Here again, not everyone wants to use your IP address for illegal purposes. Many employers, especially with the advent of telecommuting, will try to track your activities through your IP addresses. While such practices may not be technically illegal, they’re still an invasion of your privacy.
Sue you for copyright infringement: A number of countries, including the U. S., have strict laws relating to copyrights. Many of them monitor torrenting services, looking for IP addresses associated with downloads of protected music, television shows, and films. Once a law enforcement agency has your IP address, it can go to your ISP and demand the company turn over your name and address; that is, if you didn’t torrent with a VPN using one of the best VPNs for torrenting.
FYI: IP addresses don’t reveal any personal information about you, but they do indicate your general geolocation, usually your city or ZIP code.
If a hacker knows your IP address, they can track down your ISP and try to get information about you.
What Is an IP Address?
An IP address (short for internet protocol address) is a numerical label that identifies your device and your device’s general geographic location. The internet uses IP addresses to differentiate among all the different internet websites, devices, and networks, and it couldn’t operate without IP addresses.
Your device has both an external (public) IP address and an internal (private) IP address. The external address corresponds to your home or business. Essentially, it identifies your router. Internal addresses identify specific devices, differentiating them from the others in your home. 1
If you check your device settings, you may also notice that each of your devices has two IP addresses: an IPv4 address and an IPv6 address. IPv4 was introduced in 1983 and is still the address most of the internet uses. In 1999, internet experts began to worry that all the IPv4 addresses might get used up eventually, so they introduced a more complex system with more numbers and letters.
Laptop Computer with Windows
How Can I See My Own IP Address?
At any time, of course, you can find the IP address of the device you’re using, like finding your printer’s IP address. How you do this will depend on the specific type of device you’re using.
Windows
To find your IP address on a Windows device:
Right click on the Windows icon.
Choose Network and Internet.
Select Wi-Fi or Ethernet, depending on which you use.
Click Network in the center column.
Your address will be the IPv4 numbers.
Mac
If you’re looking for your IP address on a Mac:
Pull down the Apple Menu.
Select System Preferences.
In the View menu, choose Network.
In the left column, select Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
If you’re using Ethernet, your IP address will appear in the middle of the page.
If you’re using Wi-Fi, choose Advanced.
Select TCP/IP.
You’ll see your address listed under IPv4.
Android
You can find your IP addresses on an Android device by doing the following:
Navigate to your Settings menu.
Choose About.
Select Status.
You should see your IP address listed.
iPhone
To find your IP address on an iPhone:
On the home screen, choose Settings.
Select Wi-Fi.
Choose the network you’re connected to.
Your IP address should appear at the top of the screen.
How Does Someone Get Your IP Address?
The truth is, your IP address isn’t that hard to locate. Because it isn’t considered PII, most companies and services don’t take any extra precautions to conceal it. As a result, someone can get your IP address from a number of sources, including:
Your email: Some email servers list your IP address in the email heading. If you’re concerned about this, look for email servers that don’t, such as Gmail.
Torrenting files: When you torrent, your IP address is visible in the peers list. Using a VPN for torrenting can circumvent this problem, though.
Phishing attacks: Responding to phishing attacks or clicking on bogus links can make your IP address vulnerable to hackers.
Online ads: A link doesn’t have to be phony for it to collect your IP address. Even legitimate ads may record this information if you click on them. This is known as adware. Unfortunately, this is how many companies do business these days, but there are good methods out there for removing adware.
Your computer: It may seem obvious, but if you loan your device to someone, even for a minute or two, they can find your IP address in the device settings easily.
Hackers can use phishing attacks to access your IP address.
Protecting Your IP Address
There are a number of steps you can take to protect your IP address:
Update your firewall: Firewalls can’t protect you if you don’t use them properly. Make sure you use secure passwords on your firewall, your router, and all your devices and accounts. You should also make it a habit to update these passwords regularly. Doing so will help prevent anyone from breaching your security.
Change your privacy settings: Hackers can gain access to your IP address through messaging apps such as Skype. Make sure your messaging apps are set to private, and don’t accept calls or messages from anyone you don’t know.
Use a VPN: A VPN, or virtual private network, routes your internet activity through one or more servers and assigns you a new IP address. The best VPN services assign you an address that no one can trace back to you.
Use a proxy server: Like VPNs, proxy servers also hide your IP address when you’re logged in. Unlike VPNs, proxy servers don’t use high-end encryption to shield your online activity. They only hide your IP address.
Use Tor software: Tor is a web browser that lets you browse online anonymously. Like a VPN or proxy server, Tor hides your IP address, in this case by routing it through an open-source network of other Tor users. Hackers breached Tor back in 2019. A group that called itself 0v1ru$ managed to steal 7. 5 TB of data from a Russian agency. 2 However, Tor said it has fixed the problem.
Switch to mobile data: IP addresses aren’t involved in mobile data. Assuming you have the data to spare, switching to mobile data will ensure you don’t have to worry about IP address leaks at all.
Talk with your ISP: If you’re especially concerned about the security of your IP address, you might want to chat with your ISP. It may be able to suggest some solutions like assigning you a dynamic IP address that changes regularly.
Using a VPN like FastestVPN can help protect your IP address.
Can Someone Use My IP Address to Control My Computer Remotely?
By itself, an IP address doesn’t allow hackers to control your computer or impersonate you online. An IP address is simply a numeric tag that identifies your device and provides information about your general geolocation.
However, if hackers manage to gain access to your computer through other means, like malware, they can use your IP address to conduct all sorts of shady activities in your name. They might, for instance, make death threats or sell drugs. Of course, this scenario can’t happen if you keep your operating system up to date and use strong antivirus software.
Avast Antivirus – Mac is Protected
What to Do If Someone Has Your IP Address
You can’t stop someone from using your IP address if they have it; just like you can’t stop someone from using your Social Security number if you lost your Social Security card. However, you can change your IP address any time you want. Assuming you’re working at home, the easiest way to change your address is to unplug your router for five minutes and then plug it back in. Once it starts up, you’ll have a new IP address.
You can also change your IP address on the device itself, and the process is just as easy. Of course, the specific steps will depend on what type of device you’re using.
To change your address on a Windows device:
Press the Win+R keys at the same time.
In the Run box that appears, type Cmd and hit Enter.
Type Inconfig /Release.
When the text stops scrolling, type Inconfig /Renew.
If you’re changing the address on a Mac:
Click the Apple icon in the top left corner of your screen.
Choose System Preferences.
Select Network.
Select Advanced.
On the next screen, click TCP/IP.
Click Renew DHCP lease.
To change your address on an Android device:
Navigate to Settings.
Choose Connections.
Choose Wi-Fi.
Select the network you’re using.
Choose Forget.
Log on to the network again, and you’ll have a new address.
To change your address on an iPhone:
Find Settings.
Choose Network.
Select the network you’re using currently.
Under the IPv4 address, select Configure IP.
Click Automatic.
In some cases, your VPN or network manager may have given you a new IP address. You can also change your IP address by typing these numbers in manually.
To change your Windows address:
Make sure you’re working from your administrator account.
Go to Start.
Choose the Control Panel.
Select Network Connection.
Choose your LAN connection.
Click Properties.
Type in your new address.
To change your IP address on a Mac:
Find System Preferences.
Click Network.
Click IPv4.
Click Manually.
If you’re using an Android device:
Select Connections.
Tap the gear-shaped icon to bring up your current address.
Choose IP Settings.
Click on Static.
To change your IP address on an iPhone:
Click Wi-Fi.
Under the IPv4 section, click Configure IP.
THE MORE YOU KNOW: There’s an easy fix if you think someone may know your IP address. Head to your device’s settings and change the address to a completely new one.
Recap
What can someone do with your IP address? It turns out they can do quite a bit, from filling your inbox with spam to conducting illegal activities in your name.
Luckily, there are means of protecting yourself, such as antivirus software and VPNs. Of course, if all else fails, you can always just change your IP address. Whatever option you choose, a secure device means keeping your address protected.
FAQ
We’re not done just yet. As a bonus, we’ve taken the time to answer some of your most frequently asked questions about what someone can do with your IP address.
Should I be worried if someone has my IP address?
No, you shouldn’t worry if someone has your IP address. If someone has your IP address, they could send you spam or restrict your access to certain services. In extreme cases, a hacker might be able to impersonate you.
However, all you need to do to fix the problem is change your IP address. You can do this easily in the settings of your device, or you can restart your router.
What information can someone get with my IP address?
The only direct information someone can get with your IP address is your general geographic location, usually your city or postal code. If they have additional information about you, such as your birthdate or Social Security number, a hacker might be able to steal your identity or impersonate you online. And, of course, law enforcement can track you through your IP address by contacting your ISP. An IP address by itself, though, doesn’t give anyone access to your personal information automatically.
Can someone find me through my IP address?
Using your IP address, someone can identify what city or geographic region you’re in. However, without additional information, no one can find you.
What do I do if someone has my IP address?
If you suspect someone has your IP address, the easiest solution is simply to change your IP address. You can do this by shutting down your router for five minutes and restarting it. Once it restarts, it will assign all your devices completely new addresses.
You can also change your address by going into the settings of each device and refreshing the IP address. In addition, you can use a VPN service. A VPN routes your internet activity through a server and assigns you a new IP address that in many cases can’t be traced back to you.
Frequently Asked Questions about what can you do with ip
What can you get from an IP address?
For the most part, an IP address tells you the city, ZIP code, or area code of your ISP, as well as your ISP’s name. What can an IP address tell you? To some degree, your physical location and also the name of your ISP.Apr 23, 2021
What can someone do with my device IP address?
If someone has your IP address, they could send you spam or restrict your access to certain services. In extreme cases, a hacker might be able to impersonate you. However, all you need to do to fix the problem is change your IP address.Aug 23, 2021
What is the main purpose of IP?
The purpose of an IP address is to handle the connection between devices that send and receive information across a network. The IP address uniquely identifies every device on the internet; without one, there’s no way to contact them.Dec 12, 2019