How to Trace an Email to the Email Server
Every email message contains a header with information about its point of origin as well as the path it has followed. This header is generally not visible but can be seen with a few mouse clicks. It is fairly easy to find the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the originating server from the header. The IP address can then be used to determine the email's point of origination. Information, such as the physical location of the server and the name of the Internet service provider (ISP) to whom the server belongs, can be obtained from the IP address.
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Instructions
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Open the email you want to track in your Yahoo inbox.
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On top right or bottom right of the message window you should see "Full Header." Click on it. The message window should now show a lot of information about the message before the actual text of the message. This is the email header.
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Find the line in the header that starts with "X-Originating-IP." There should be an IP address in this line in the format 123.45.67.89. Note it down exactly as it states. This is the IP address of the server from which the email was sent.
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Enter the IP address of the originating server in your favorite IP tracker program (such as ip-adress.com/). The program should tell you all the details about the location of the server including country, state, city, postal code, longitude, latitude and the Internet service provider used.
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Tips & Warnings
Here we have looked at how to track email in a Yahoo inbox. For Hotmail, you will have to enable full header from Options tab. Every email server has its own method of enabling full header view. In most cases, one has to go in mail options to do that.
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- Photo Credit Email Concept image by wayne ruston from Fotolia.com
