An IP address does not tell you what kind of network it belongs to. The autonomous system behind it does. Every routable IP sits inside an ASN, and that ASN has a type: hosting, business, education, government, or a consumer ISP. One lookup returns it, and that single field sorts almost any address into datacenter traffic, an organization, or a real person on a home connection.
Almost. There are a few cases where ASN type alone points you toward the wrong conclusion, including one that matters particularly for fraud and abuse work. We'll get to them.
TL;DR
Every public IP belongs to an ASN, and the ASN carries a type field: ISP, HOSTING, BUSINESS, EDUCATION, or GOVERNMENT.
HOSTING means a datacenter or cloud provider. ISP means a consumer access network. BUSINESS, EDUCATION, and GOVERNMENT are organizations on their own address space.
