IP Lookup

Zero-dependency network intelligence for any IP address or hostname. Combines four data sources into one clean terminal report: geolocation, reverse DNS, RDAP/WHOIS network block info, and optional AbuseIPDB reputation check.

No pip install required. Uses only Python 3 stdlib (urllib, socket, json, argparse). Works on any machine that has Python - no virtual environments, no dependency management.

Quick Start

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/ip_lookup.py 8.8.8.8
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/ip_lookup.py github.com

For a hostname, it auto-resolves to IP first, then runs all lookups.

What each panel shows

[Geo] Geolocation (always on)

Queries ip-api.com (45 req/min free, no key). Falls back to ipwho.is if ip-api.com fails.

Returns:

Country, country code, region, city, postal/ZIP code
Latitude and longitude coordinates
Timezone (e.g. America/ New_York)
ISP name and organisation
ASN in "AS12345 Name" format
Flags: PROXY, HOSTING/VPN, MOBILE - detected by ip-api.com heuristics

Example output for 8.8.8.8: IP Address 8.8.8.8 Country United States [US] Region Virginia City Ashburn Timezone America/New_York ISP Google LLC Org Google Public DNS ASN AS15169 Google LLC Flags HOSTING/VPN

[PTR] Reverse DNS (on by default, skip with --no-ptr)

Queries dns.google for the PTR record of the IP. Converts the IP to in-addr.arpa form internally. Returns the hostname if one exists, or "(no PTR record)" if none.

Useful for: identifying server hostnames, recognising CDN edge nodes (e.g. server- 13-35-12-1.fra50.r.cloudfront.net), confirming FCrDNS (forward-confirmed reverse DNS).

[RDAP] RDAP / WHOIS (on by default, skip with --no-rdap)

Queries rdap.arin.net first. Falls back to rdap.db.ripe.net for European IPs.

Returns:

Network name - registered handle for the IP block (e.g. APNIC-LABS, MSFT)
CIDR block(s) - prefix in CIDR notation (e.g. 1.1.1.0/24)
Abuse contact name and email - extracted from RDAP entities where roles includes "abuse"
Registration date and Last changed date

Example output for 1.1.1.1: Network Name APNIC-LABS CIDR Block(s) 1.1.1.0/24 Abuse Email helpdesk@apnic.net Registration 2011-08-10 Last Changed 2023-04-26

[Abuse] AbuseIPDB reputation (optional, requires free API key)

Queries api.abusei pdb.com with 90-day lookback. Returns:

Abuse confidence score 0-100 (0 = clean, 100 = confirmed malicious)
Total reports in past 90 days
Last reported timestamp
Usage type (e.g. Data Center/Web Hosting/Transit)
Domain associated with the IP

Score guide:

0 = no reports, likely clean
1-25 = low risk, possibly misconfigured server
26-75 = suspicious, investigate further
76-100 = high confidence malicious (scanner, spam source, Tor exit node, etc.)

All flags

Flag	Effect
--json	Full result as JSON (no ANSI codes, safe to pipe)
--abuse	Enable AbuseIPDB panel (needs ABUSEIPDB_KEY env var)
--no-rdap	Skip RDAP/WHOIS (faster, avoids rate limits)
--no-ptr
Skip reverse DNS PTR lookup

Common workflows

Fast geo-only lookup: python3 {baseDir}/scripts/ip_lookup.py 104.21.0.1 --no-rdap --no-ptr

Find abuse contact for a network: python3 {baseDir}/scripts/ip_lookup.py 185.220.101.1

Check if IP is flagged malicious: export ABUSEIPDB_KEY=your_key python3 {baseDir}/scripts/ip_lookup.py 185.220.101.1 --abuse

Scripting with JSON output: python3 {baseDir}/scripts/ip_lookup.py 8.8.8.8 --json | python3 -c
"import json,sys; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(d['geo']['country'], d['geo']['as'])"

Investigate a hostname (auto-resolves): python3 {baseDir}/scripts/ip_lookup.py suspicious-domain.example.com

AbuseIPDB setup (one-time)

Sign up free at https://www.abuseipdb.com/register
Go to API tab in y our dashboard and create a key (free tier: 1000 checks/day)
Run: export ABUSEIPDB_KEY=your_key_here

Technical notes

ANSI colour output is auto-disabled when stdout is not a TTY (pipes, CI, logs)
IPv6 addresses are supported for geolocation and RDAP; PTR lookup is IPv4-only
RDAP tries ARIN first (global coverage), retries RIPE directly if no data returned
ip-api.com rate limit: 45 requests/minute on the free tier; auto-falls back to ipwho.is
No caching - all calls are live; use --no-rdap --no-ptr for bulk queries
Script uses only Python 3 stdlib - no pip install needed

ip-lookup