How to find an IP address from Yahoo Messenger

[JLam]

I won't bore you with the details, but I need to be able to track down the IP address of someone I'm chatting with in Yahoo Messenger. (And no, I'm not a stalker. Without getting too specific on a public message board, this person may be involved in criminal activity that I need to report to the police, but I need to be able to give them some info to go on.)

So basically I need a program to figure out from what IP addy a person is chatting from, and the program needs to be compatible with Yahoo Messenger. Are there any good programs to do this? I tried google but it's one of the rare times that I didn't seem to get any relevant hits.

Anyone?

[richardm]

You could use netstat /n, but it will probably only show the IP address of the Yahoo server. A more certain way would be to use the inbuilt File Transfer thing to send him a file. This will put the messenger into peer-to-peer mode, so while the file is transferring you can use netstat /n to reveal the IP address it's going to.

[sophia8]

Funny coincidence - this same sort of question has just cropped up on another MB. This one was a question about how you could trace the IP of an email message. Somebody came up with this (http://www.abika.com/Reports/verifyemail.htm). It's not a free service, but it might be worth the cost if you're about to be scammed.
There's also this program (http://www.visualware.com/internetsecurity/index.html), although I don't think it traces IM IPs. It costs, but you can download a free trial.

[TobiasTheViking]

@JLam: Hey, i help you out, and this is the thanks i get...

Thanks i guess... :/

[blutoski]

I won't bore you with the details, but I need to be able to track down the IP address of someone I'm chatting with in Yahoo Messenger.

What OS?

[JLam]

What OS?
windows xp.

[RayG]

I won't bore you with the details, but I need to be able to track down the IP address of someone I'm chatting with in Yahoo Messenger.

Wouldn't it be better to track them down by email address? I'm not really familiar with Yahoo Messenger, but doesn't it work the same way as in MSN Messenger? You need their email address to be able to chat with them. Even if they login each time from a single location, their IP address might not be static, and if they log in from different locations (public library, home, work, Starbucks, etc. etc.) their IP address will be completely different.

If it's truly criminal activity the person is engaging in, their ISP should be willing to release details to the proper authorities.

RayG

[LordoftheLeftHand]

Well a low tech solution is just get them to email you, look at the headers and you got them.

LLH

[bigred]

Well a low tech solution is just get them to email you, look at the headers and you got them.

LLH
Not necessarily. #$@! spammers have long since been able to get around that one.

[LordoftheLeftHand]

Not necessarily. #$@! spammers have long since been able to get around that one.

Well there are lots of ways to get around it, but its a good place to start.

LLH