Frequently Asked Questions

An IP address is a unique numerical identifier assigned to every device connected to the internet or a local network. It serves two roles: identifying the device and indicating its approximate location in the network. IP stands for Internet Protocol, the set of rules that governs how data is sent and received over the internet.

While we use advanced data sources, IP geolocation accuracy varies. Country-level detection is near 100% accurate. City level is accurate roughly 80% of the time for residential connections. Mobile, VPN, and corporate users often show the location of the carrier infrastructure or VPN server rather than their physical location. IP geolocation cannot pinpoint a street address or household.

We aggregate IP insights from reputable public data sources, threat intelligence feeds, and geolocation providers. Geolocation data is derived from BGP routing tables, WHOIS records, and cross-referenced from multiple providers. Threat data (VPN detection, proxy flags, Tor exit nodes, known abusers) comes from curated blocklists and behavioral analysis databases.

IPv4 is the older protocol that uses 32-bit addresses, producing roughly 4.3 billion unique addresses — a pool that is now exhausted. IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, providing an astronomically larger pool (approximately 340 undecillion addresses). IPv6 also includes built-in IPsec support and stateless auto-configuration. Most modern networks run both protocols simultaneously (dual-stack). You can see which version your current IP uses at the top of this site.

No. IP geolocation can narrow down your approximate city or region, but it cannot identify your street address, apartment number, or identity. Pinpointing an individual subscriber requires a legal request (such as a subpoena) served to your ISP, which keeps logs that link IP addresses to account holders. Anyone claiming they can find your home address from your IP alone is mistaken.

An ASN is a globally unique number assigned to each autonomous system — a large network operated by a single organization such as an ISP, cloud provider, or university. ISPs and major networks use BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) to exchange routing information between autonomous systems. When you look up an IP address, the ASN tells you which organization owns the network block. For example, AS15169 belongs to Google, and AS16509 belongs to Amazon Web Services.

Most residential ISPs assign dynamic IPs via DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). Your router requests an address from a pool, and the ISP grants a lease for a fixed period. When the lease expires or your router restarts, you may receive a different IP. Many ISPs renew the same address repeatedly, so your IP may appear stable for months — but this is not guaranteed. If you need a permanent address, ask your ISP about a static IP option.

CGNAT stands for Carrier-Grade NAT. Some ISPs — especially mobile carriers and budget broadband providers — share a single public IP address among thousands of customers. Instead of giving your router a real public IP, they give it a private address in the range 100.64.0.0/10, then apply NAT at the carrier level. This means there is no way to forward ports through to your home devices, making it impossible to host a web server, game server, or remote desktop without a workaround such as a VPN tunnel or a cloud relay.

In most countries, using a VPN, proxy, or Tor to mask your IP address is completely legal. These tools are widely used by businesses, journalists, and privacy-conscious individuals. A small number of countries restrict or ban VPN use — including China, Russia, and a few others. Regardless of jurisdiction, hiding your IP does not make illegal activity legal; your VPN or Tor provider may still comply with lawful requests from authorities.

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) routes your internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a server operated by the VPN provider. Websites see the VPN server's IP instead of yours, and your ISP sees only encrypted data going to one destination. A VPN is worth using if you regularly connect to public Wi-Fi, want to bypass geographic content restrictions, or want to limit your ISP's ability to monitor your browsing habits. Choose a provider with a verified no-logs policy and an independent security audit.

No. IPDSN does not log or store the IP addresses you submit for lookup. We do not require registration or an account. Lookups are processed server-side and forwarded to our data provider; your IP is not sent to any third-party API directly from your browser. Standard Cloudflare edge logs are retained per Cloudflare's standard data retention policy.