How to Trace an Ip Address

Theory...
    Email messages, as in the case of their non-electronic cousins, have "envelopes" of a sort. In the case of email the envelope is composed of a series of "Headers". These are just a series of lines of characters which precede the actual email message. Email programs such as Outlook do not normally display these Headers when displaying a message. From these Headers however, the email program is able to extract important information about the message, such as the message encoding method, the creation date, the message subject, the sender and receiver, etc.

    Moreover, just as a postal envelope contains an address, a return address and the cancellation stamp of the post office of origin, an email message in these "Headers" carries with it a history of its journey to your email inbox. Because of this, it's possible to determine the original IP address of the sender.

    Since email programs do not normally display these Headers, we must first learn how to display them. Depending on the program, this is done in a variety of ways. The following sequence details the way to do this using the Windows default email program, "Outlook Express".
First, select "Properties" from the "File" Menu, or just press ALT+Enter. Next, select the "Details" tab.



Open Outlook Express menu to see email headers  

Headers in Outlook Express

    Here's how to view the Headers in the Microsoft Office version of Outlook:

Open a message.
On the View menu, click Options.
Note:If you do not see the Options command, make sure you click View on the toolbar in an open message window. The View menu on the standard Outlook toolbar does not have the Options command.
The Header information appears under the Delivery options in the Internet Headers box.

Headers in MS Office
    See how to show email headers in Yahoo, HotMail, Gmail, and AOL web mail.

    As you can see on these pictures, a Header consists of two sections separated by a colon...