Re: Can IP address identify the computer's location?

From: Unruh (unruh-spam_at_physics.ubc.ca)
Date: 09/29/05 

Date: 28 Sep 2005 23:22:47 GMT

strutsng@gmail.com writes:

>I have heard IP address can identify the computer's location. How? If
>someone knows the IP address in my house's machine, then they know
>where I live?

>This is very unsafe. How to prevent the privacy threat?

>Please advise. thanks!!

A lesson in routing. The system has to know how to deliver any packet to an
address. It looks up the address, and either discovers it knows where to
send the packet-- on a local ethernet--- or it sends it on to someone else
(default) This goes on till the packet gets to someone who knowns where to
send the packet. That means that they have to be on the ethernet loop as
the machine. So, the final hop must be connected by a wire to the machine.
The people who wired up the system will know where the wires go to. Anyone
further up the chain will know whom to send the packet to .

Thus if you look up my address using whois, you will discover that it is
the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. There are about 10,000
computers there. UBC will then know to send the packet to the physics
router. The physics router will know to send it to the research network,
which will be connected by wire to me. The administrator in physics will
know where that particular wire terminates.

So, teh IP address will in general easily give the generic location (UBC)
and then from there you would have to ask UBC where I was.

Ie, there is obviously a direct one to one mapping from the address to your
machine. But, that mapping is divided into parts.

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