Can you Locate a server

VFR_KID · 25 Nov 2009 at 19:26

Is it possible to locate a server from an IP?

Mates having a lot of hastle from a free forum. problem is the people making threats are the Admins and all that.

Its a free site so he has involved the police as it is getting violent (physicaly)

Im generaly asking if someone can provide a way for me to get contact details for the server so he can forward the details on to them of whats going on

Andy100 · 25 Nov 2009 at 19:39

If you know the domain then you can do a whois lookup which will tell you who owns the domain.

Just google whois to find a site to enter the domain name.

I'd imagine that they would be ultimately responsible for anything going on there.

If the police are involved then I'm sure they would be able to do this anyway... You're probably better off leaving it to them.

VFR_KID · 25 Nov 2009 at 19:41

Cheers. I have found the company.

It is privatley registerd but the guy it is set to no longer uses it. It is one of these free forum things and admin have gone crazy and basicly act like little kids but its getting a bit violent now. Got all the details. Cheers for the help tho andy

Sin_Chase · 25 Nov 2009 at 21:25

Get the IP of the server.

Look it up in the appropriate database (ARIN, RIPE etc) to find the ISP allocation - complain to their listed complaints number/e-mail.

They will have the details of the person running the server who is ultimately responsible for it's content. They will not give them to you, but they should start proceedings to sort it out.

J.B · 25 Nov 2009 at 21:51

http://www.whatsmyip.org/iplocation/

Also, if you do the WHOIS lookup you might be able to find the ISP is and could chase them up as they normally have an abuse reporting email address.

bigredshark · 26 Nov 2009 at 13:01

Sin_Chase said:
Get the IP of the server.

Look it up in the appropriate database (ARIN, RIPE etc) to find the ISP allocation - complain to their listed complaints number/e-mail.

They will have the details of the person running the server who is ultimately responsible for it's content. They will not give them to you, but they should start proceedings to sort it out.

Unlikely, I wouldn't get involved if somebody came to me with that. Most will tend to limit themselves to technical abuse only (spam, botnets, etc), anything else is a legal matter which would require a take down order of some kind or instruction from the police (and I mean being told, not asked).

Basically I've no interest in censoring content and even less in deciding which content should be censored which is what your asking the provider to do if you contact them.

What you're describing is also not, as far as I can see, likely to be a breach of the terms of service. So there's not any compelling reason for the provider to act, especially given they are likely being paid to host the site.

If the police are involved I'd leave it to them, not that it'll likely go anywhere unless it serious stuff happening to your mate. The police can be fairly abusive of their powers in this area and technically fairly clueless at times, the result of which is generally we don't go out of our way to be helpful unless we're have to (that is, they have a warrant or similar legal grounds to make us hand over the information).

daz · 26 Nov 2009 at 16:15

bigredshark said:
Unlikely, I wouldn't get involved if somebody came to me with that. Most will tend to limit themselves to technical abuse only (spam, botnets, etc), anything else is a legal matter which would require a take down order of some kind or instruction from the police (and I mean being told, not asked).

Basically I've no interest in censoring content and even less in deciding which content should be censored which is what your asking the provider to do if you contact them.

What you're describing is also not, as far as I can see, likely to be a breach of the terms of service. So there's not any compelling reason for the provider to act, especially given they are likely being paid to host the site.

If the police are involved I'd leave it to them, not that it'll likely go anywhere unless it serious stuff happening to your mate. The police can be fairly abusive of their powers in this area and technically fairly clueless at times, the result of which is generally we don't go out of our way to be helpful unless we're have to (that is, they have a warrant or similar legal grounds to make us hand over the information).

Be very careful with that stance these days after Godfrey versus Demon Internet.

bigredshark · 26 Nov 2009 at 16:39

daz said:
Be very careful with that stance these days after Godfrey versus Demon Internet.

That's a different case as the ISP operated and maintained the usenet server in question, the position is different for customer sites. Obviously anything even remotely close to that line passes by the legal team too, I'm just saying if you complained about this to me I'd do nothing about it so you're better pursuing it with the police.