How to Track Webmail

Tracking the origin of webmail is easy.

It is easy to track webmail, or Web-based email, to its location of origin. This can be a useful thing to know when one receives spam mail and wishes to trace it to its sender. It also can come in handy for many research purposes. Webmail can be traced by finding the mailer's IP address and looking up its location.

Things You'll Need

• Internet access

Instructions

1. View the original copy of a webmail. On Google's Gmail, you can do so by opening an email, clicking on the downward arrow on the far right and selecting "Show original."

2. Find the lines of text that begin with "Received: from." Click on "Edit" and "Find" in your Web browser, or select "Ctrl" plus "F" and type in "Received: from." You may look for it instead, but the text is relatively hard to read and simply searching for it will be quicker. Find the last "Received: from." This will be the computer from which the webmail first originated. Next to it will be the sender's IP address, a number formatted as follows: xx.xxx.xxx.xxx.

3. Look up the location of the IP address using a search engine such as IP2Location or GeoBytes IP Locator. Copy and paste the IP address from your search into the search engine and hit "Search." It will show you the location where the webmail originated.

Tips & Warnings

• Search a WhoIs database (for example WhoIs.com) to find out more information about the host of the IP address.

References

• Online Tech Tips: How to track the original location of an email via its IP address
• IP2Location
• GeoBytes

Resources

• WhoIs: Identity For Anyone