Identifying IP addresses

[Sue]

My firewall alerts me when something wants to either
access the web in a different way or enter my domain; it
identifies it with an IP address.
How can I "translate" that string of numbers into an
address I might recognize (or not)?
Even if it's a Windows svchost.exe item, might it not
contain a virus?
I'm new to the stuff behind the scenes (as you can
probably tell from the way I explain things). Help! Or
should I contact my antivirus people for help?

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Open a command prompt window and use either of the following commands:

PING -A <IP Address>
TRACERT <IP Address>

Either of these commands will resolve the IP address to a host name if one exists.