Is there a way to find someones email address via IP?

Answer 1

Nope... The IP address simply identifies the computer's internet connection to the server. The personal information relating to the identity, email address etc is only accessible by the person's internet provider - for billing purposes or matters of security.

Answer 2

No, that is not something you can do for a number of reasons.

First, let's assume that the person email you are trying to find is from a local cable modem provider. The IP address that you would have would be either to the email server, which is of no help at all since it services all the email addresses in the area, or it would be one of the pool of IP addresses dynamically assigned to devices directly attached to cable modems (such as routers) as they come online in the cable modem network. Having a dynamic address means that there is no guarantee that the IP address that it has at this very moment will actually be the same five seconds, five hours, or five days from now. It all depends on a number of factors such as the DHCP assignment lease time, whether the router stays online continuously or gets shut off/reset at some point, or maybe even the DHCP server at the cable company's end gets reset. So, that would not work.

Next, let's assume once again that the person is using a local Internet provider for Internet access but the person is using a webmail service such as GMail. The IP address would not help you here because the email address is not associated with the IP address but, instead, with the login credentials (username and password) of the user in question. In other words, there is no telling from which IP address the user sent a particular email, especially if using the webmail interface at GMail.com or Mail.Yahoo.com or something similar rather than an email client such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. If a client is used, then one might be able to see what the dynamic IP address of the router was when the email was sent but, then again, if one is able to receive the email and read through the headers to get that IP address, one will already have access to the email address since that is in the most easily accessed fields of the email in the first place, thus defeating the question posed here.

Finally, let's assume for a moment that the person for whom you are trying to get an email address is sending it from a corporate location, such as StateFarm.com. The IP address would get you to the email server and would probably be the right one for the location of the user. (Many larger corporations such as State Farm have multiple servers that service different regions of the country.) However, since that server will probably be used by hundreds or thousands of users, there is no way to track the email address from an IP address.

To take this one step further, be aware there are two "types" of IP addresses that are used to create connectivity to the Internet: internal (private) and external (public). When one installs a router, one will most often have an IP address scheme set by the factory of 192.168.0.x or 192.168.1.x These are internal addresses, which means that they are not routable: they cannot be used on the Internet. The router, when it receives information destined for the Internet such as a Google search request, takes the request from the internal address and then sends it out with its own external address as assigned by the DHCP server owned by the Internet service provider. Upon receiving the response from the request's destination, it strips off its own address and reattaches the private IP address so that it gets back to the correct user. This is known as Network Address Translation (NAT). So, even if you had the person's IP address for his computer, that would be the private IP address that is behind the router, such as 192.168.1.15. Unfortunately that is of no use because there will be millions, if not billions, of devices with that same private IP address and, even if you could find a way to look for it through the Internet, you would have no idea which one was the actual host of the email address you wish to find.

To have a chance to accomplish what you desire, you would need to know both the external IP address of the person in question as well as the internal IP address. However, even if you did know both IP addresses, there would still be no way to know the person's email address since, once again, it is not tied to an IP address. As a perfect example, from my cellular phone, I can use any of three email addresses I have configured for various purposes. From my office computer, I have two addresses (one of which is different from those on the phone). From my home computer, I have all the above addresses and five more. So, there is no way to determine which email address or even which email provider (e.g. GMail, Yahoo, Cox.net, StateFarm.com, etc.) one might use from any particular device.

Your best bet is just to ask the person what his email address is.

I hope this helps. If you have any other questions, feel free to let me know.