ARIN
Ever wanted to lookup an IP address to find out who it belonged to? Perhaps you get tons of SPAM and you are curious to know where that link is really going to take you. Well ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) is your solution. Just give it an IP and ARIN will return a bunch of information about it.
ARIN is one of five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) which provide this type of information for specific areas:
• ARIN (North America)
• AfriNIC (Africa)
• APNIC (Asia Pacific region)
• LACNIC (Southern and Central America and the Carribean)
• RIPE NCC (Europe and the Middle East)
Usually you will want to start by searching ARIN. If the IP address is outside of North America, ARIN will provide you with a referral to the correct RIR. You need to then search that RIR to get more specific results.
So, next time you get an email from “LaSalle Bank” (even though you have no accounts with them) or “eBay” requests your SSN, driver’s license, all of your active credit card numbers and a DNA sample, don’t just trash the message. Think of it as an opportunity to wrangle some bad guys.
Tags: internet