Underground And Other Stuff

Sometimes on the internet you get an IP address but have no idea who it is. Whether it be an IP address which is being blocked by your firewall or you are doing a lookup to see who is spamming you, you can do a quick lookup of an IP address using a tool which is already on your PC. In Windows 2000/XP, go to Start > Run and type in "command" and press enter. At the command prompt, enter "nslookup xx.xx.xx.xx" (where the xx stuff is the IP address). The output will be first some info about your ISP, then it will give you the IP address you entered and the domain it is resolving to. This can help you get some meaning behind those cryptic numbers.
For Windows 9x/ME users, you can head on over to www.dnsstuff.com and do the same (plus they have a lot of other useful tools, too).