IP addresses. Everyone on the internet has them, and everyone leaves them behind, whether its someone leaving a comment on a blog like this one, or someone leaving a few dozen SPAM comments, etc.
If you have someone’s IP address and would like to find out where it originates, Locate IP is a small, free program that can show you. It will place a location flag on a Google map and provides the typical Google map interactivity, such as zooming in and out, etc.
This software comes to you from the same author which brought us just-reviewed StartupEye. It is so simple that there’s not much to say about it, really, except that it does exactly what it purports to do. You can type in multiple IP addresses and then switch from one to the next, and the map will switch with you.
Check out that IP address in Arizona (in the screenshot above). That guy is responsible for large amounts of comment spam, which all gets filtered out by my WordPress antispam plugins. (And yes I did pixellate his IP in the screenshot cause I’m such a nice guy).
One strange thing, though, is that IP Locator seems to insist that the user type the IP address rather than paste it in. Also, it insist on the user clicking “ok” with the mouse rather than pressing enter.
Version tested: 1.0 (build 1.1)
Compatibility: Winall. Requires GeoLiteCityDB (which can be downloaded automatically by the program installer, or from a link on the author’s site).
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (1.3 megs).
