I was using a random video-chat website when another person posted what appeared to be my IP address and threatened to knock my internet offline with a DDoS attack. I disconnected my router for about an hour because I was worried, but I'm not sure whether the threat is serious or what steps I should take. The address seemed to point to a nearby city rather than my exact location. Is my home network actually at risk, and should I contact my internet provider?
4 Answers
The nearby city is probably just the location associated with your ISP’s network equipment. IP geolocation is approximate and can be far from where you actually live. Don’t open ports or forward traffic to devices on your home network, keep your router’s firmware updated, and avoid services that make you uncomfortable. A reputable VPN can hide your home IP from the sites or users you connect to, but it isn’t required for ordinary browsing.
You generally don’t need to call the police just because someone displayed your IP or made an empty DDoS threat. Save screenshots if there were specific threats, harassment, or evidence of an actual attack. If your internet repeatedly drops, the router shows unusual activity, or the person threatens you with personal information, report it to the site and your ISP, and escalate to local authorities if there is a credible threat.
A public IP address isn’t secret information. Websites and online services can see it because they need it to send data back to you, and it usually identifies your ISP and a general area—not your exact home address. Most threats like this are just meant to scare people. You can reconnect your router and ignore the person, but block or report them if possible.
That helps a lot. I’ve had my connection disrupted after someone made a similar threat while gaming, so I got anxious, but my internet is working normally again now.
Some video-chat services connect users directly rather than routing traffic through a relay, so the other person may genuinely be able to see your public IP. That still doesn’t automatically mean your network is compromised. If your connection becomes unusable, restart the modem and router, then contact your ISP and ask whether they can assign a new public IP or investigate an attack.
So seeing a nearby city doesn’t mean they know my actual address? I think I’m going to avoid those chat sites from now on.