How to Trace an IP Address? 4 Easy Ways

Data trading is the new black in the 21^st century. Truth be told, the “cyber black market,” where your data is sold, enjoys more profit than traditional criminals reap out of illegal drug trades.

What does it mean for you?

For starters, your data has become a valuable commodity for others. Secondly, your online privacy and data security have become more fragile than you can imagine.

Do you know what they need to exploit your privacy? Your IP address. Yes, it is the first and most important layer of your online privacy that – if breached – can lead to several digital threats.

Therefore, understanding how to trace an IP address is the first step to knowing how to protect your privacy on the Internet.

Can an IP address be traced?

Indeed, it can be traced. In fact, anyone can trace IP addresses easily through some nifty workarounds.

The Internet assigns every device an IP address so it knows where to send private emails, files, messages, and other data. In other words, it treats your IP address as your contact ID or face ID.

If the Internet can keep track of your IP, so can the threat actors, who know the Internet’s ins and outs and how to exploit it best.

How to trace an IP address? Four ways you can do that easily

If hackers can, you can do it- this is how the Internet has made it easy for anyone to learn and do anything.

There are a lot of ways you can track anyone’s IP. You can do it by using IP trace commands. You can do it by using HTML bugs. And you can do it by exploiting a vulnerability on the target’s computer network.

Let’s look at some of the most common ways anyone can trace an IP address.

1) Trace IP through Facebook Messenger

Who doesn’t use Facebook? Since it is home to millions of Internet users worldwide, it is ultimately one of the ideal places for hackers to find vulnerable targets.

You can do it using the built-in Facebook messenger. First, make sure that you have closed all the windows and other services that are using the Internet.

Now, open the command prompt on your Windows, type “netstat—an,” and hit Enter. You will get your system’s IP address and the recipient you are connected to on the Facebook built-in messenger.

You can do the same on your Mac by using the Utility Tool.

Learn How to Delete Facebook Messenger

2) Trace IP from Email inbox

When you send an email to any recipient, it isn’t just the message delivered to the other person. The email contains additional information about the sender, including their IP address.

Besides Gmail, which hides the real IP of users, you can easily check the IP of the sender on other Email clients via the settings.

For instance, search your Hotmail inbox for any of your desired contact’s emails. Right-click the email and click View message source. In the source, you can easily find the real IP of the sender, unless they have used any proxy service.

Yahoo mail also reveals the sender’s IP address. You can check it out by selecting the email and viewing the Full Header option.

Any hacker can easily trace your IP by sending you any phishing email unless you don’t open it and reply.

3) Trace IP via HTML bugs

You can also find out the IP address of anyone you want through HTML bugs.

The HTML bugs may sound sophisticated, but you would be amazed to find that they are exactly the opposite.

In fact, online services can help you configure such emails without costing you a penny.

Anyway, these bugs are encoded into the images you see in an email. When the recipient receives the email and clicks the image, the IP address is sent to the bug’s owner.

4) Trace IP on a vulnerable WiFi network

Tracing IP addresses becomes easier when it comes to exploiting WiFi networks, especially for hackers

They only have to tap your network, and that’s all. Once a hacker takes over the network, they can not only trace the IP but also eavesdrop on all your private activities.

The most common method they use to tap vulnerable networks is through Men-in-the-Middle attacks.

How to track the location of an IP address

Now that you know how to trace and identify an IP address, it is time to track the location of the owner of the IP. The good thing is that you don’t need to download any tool to go about it.

There are IP trackers and IP-lookup websites that you can use to trace any IP once you have it.

In the following steps, we will be using WolframAlpha.com to track the IP location.

1. Launch your browser
2. Visit the website, www.wolframalpha.com
3. On the search field, enter the public IP address we located earlier
4. Within a few seconds, you will get the location of the IP address

Anyone can see what you do online

Your geolocation isn’t the only thing that can be traced with an IP address. In fact, your IP carries much more important data with it than you know.

• Any hacker can pinpoint your exact location on the map
• They can extract the details regarding the device you are using, the OS and even the browser
• They can track your online browsing history
• They can hack your system or install any bug to keep track of your online activities

All in all, they can do much more than just spying on what you do online.

How to stop someone from tracking your IP address

As you now know that it isn’t possible or even difficult for anyone, even for you, to trace IP addresses of any user on the Internet. But there is a pretty neat trick you can use to throw hackers off the track.

Use a Virtual Private Network

A VPN is your best bet against any prying eyes that are after your privacy and your valuable data. Once it is configured on your device, whatever you do online becomes hidden and anonymous.

Learn more about What is VPN?

A VPN encrypts your Internet, making sure that no one can see what you do online. Moreover, it assigns you an anonymous IP address that makes sure that no one can trace any internet activity back to you.