How to locate a IP address using WHOIS

I saw there are some sites on internet selling IP address databases. I thought those information would be free, if you know some commands. “Whois” is the one. Let’s check it out. Using Whois database won’t give you exact location of the IP your are researching. Most of time owner of the IP address’s location will be displayed, because whois database is updated based on IP allocation information. Many operating systems provide a whois utility. To conduct a query from the command line, the format is:

whois -h hostname identifier e.g. whois -h whois.arin.net

To obtain a more specific response, you can use options below. Many options can be combined togather. Each option parameter should be separated by space.

Record type options;
n Network address space
a Autonomous systems
p Points-of-contact
o Organizations
c End-user customers

Attribute options; @ Searches for matches by domain-portion of an email
address
! Searches for matches by handle or id
. Searches for matches by name

Display Options;

+ FULL output shows detailed display for EACH match
– LIST output shows summary only, even if single match
returned

The + options cannot be used with the sub-query featured described below.

Record hierarchy;

< Displays the record related up the hierarchy. For a network,
display the supernet, or parent network in detailed format.
> Displays the record related down the hierarchy. For a network,
display the subdelegations, or subnets, below the network, in
list format. For an organization or customer, display
the resources registered to that organization or customer, in
list format.

Wild card queries;

WHOIS supports wild card queries with an asterisk [*].