Guides
Plain-English explainers written and reviewed by the IP Address Lookup team. No jargon, no filler.
What your IP address actually reveals about you
Less than the scary ads claim, more than nothing. Here is what someone really learns from your IP.
5 min read · Reviewed July 2026
VPN, proxy, or Tor: which one actually hides your IP
All three replace your IP with a different one. They fail in very different ways. Pick based on the failure you can live with.
6 min read · Reviewed July 2026
IPv4 vs IPv6: why the internet ran out of numbers
The internet ran out of addresses in 2011 and mostly shrugged. What IPv6 fixes, why the rollout took decades, and which one you’re on.
5 min read · Reviewed July 2026
How to change your IP address (and when it won’t help)
Five ways to get a different IP, from restarting your router to calling your provider — plus the cases where changing it fixes nothing.
5 min read · Reviewed July 2026
CGNAT: why you might share an IP with hundreds of strangers
Carrier-grade NAT quietly puts you behind a shared address. It’s why you get blocked for things you never did — here’s how to check and what to do.
5 min read · Reviewed July 2026
How accurate is IP geolocation, really?
Country: very. City: coin flip plus. Street: never. What the databases actually know and why your weather widget thinks you live two towns over.
5 min read · Reviewed July 2026
What your ISP can see that websites can’t
Websites see one visit each. Your internet provider sees all of them. What HTTPS hides, what it doesn’t, and what your provider does with the rest.
6 min read · Reviewed July 2026
Port forwarding in plain English
Your router ignores unexpected visitors by design. Port forwarding is how you tell it “this one’s for me” — for game servers, cameras, and remote access.
6 min read · Reviewed July 2026