English
HrvatskiWhat is an ISP?
The displayed name is the internet service provider (ISP) your public IP address belongs to. An ISP is the company that connects you to the internet, such as a cable, fiber or DSL operator, or a mobile carrier. It also assigns your IP address.
How ISP lookups work
ISPs receive blocks of IP addresses from a regional internet registry: RIPE NCC in Europe, ARIN in North America, APNIC in Asia-Pacific, LACNIC in Latin America and AFRINIC in Africa. Each allocation is recorded in a public database together with the organization that holds it. Looking up your IP address in that data, or in the routing table that shows which network (ASN) announces it, reveals your provider.
What your ISP can see
Because all your traffic passes through its network, your ISP can see:
- which IP addresses and domain names you connect to
- when you are online and how much data you use
- the contents of any unencrypted traffic
Encrypted HTTPS hides page contents and full URLs from your ISP, but not the sites you visit. A VPN moves that visibility from your ISP to the VPN provider.
When knowing your ISP helps
- Troubleshooting: confirm which network you are on before contacting support, especially with dual-SIM phones or backup connections.
- Checking a VPN: if the lookup still shows your home ISP while the VPN is on, the VPN isn’t working.
- Network diagnostics: when a site is unreachable for you but not for others, the problem is often between your ISP and that site.
Mobile carriers and shared addresses
On mobile data, the ISP shown is your carrier. Many carriers, and a growing number of home ISPs, use carrier-grade NAT: one public IP address shared by many customers at once. That’s why your IP location on mobile data is often a city far from where you are.