Hotmail IP address - Country verification

[Barney Trubble]

Could anyone advise me how I manage to find which country and email has been sent from using Hotmail?

 

I remember at one time, there was a way of checking the IP address.

 

Also, is it 'whois' that can verify the server that it was sent from?

 

Thanks

[badgerx16]

If it's coming from hotmail, then all you will find is a Microsoft mail server somewhere.

 

If you go to http://geoip.sifavi.com/ip/ and put the IP in the host/IP box on the left hand side, this will show you where the server is accoring to ISP/WHOIS data.

[Barney Trubble]

Thanks Badger, so Hotmail simply generates proxy IP addresses which just tell me where the mail server is located?

 

I was using this site http://aruljohn.com/track.pl.

 

Basically a friend is receiving emails from someone who is supposed to be in Malaysia but when I put the IP address into that site it states that it's being sent from Australia. Is this accurate or not? Thanks

[badgerx16]

Thanks Badger, so Hotmail simply generates proxy IP addresses which just tell me where the mail server is located?

 

I was using this site http://aruljohn.com/track.pl.

 

Basically a friend is receiving emails from someone who is supposed to be in Malaysia but when I put the IP address into that site it states that it's being sent from Australia. Is this accurate or not? Thanks

 

The IP address you see in the MIME headers on a mail message is the address of the mail server. With something like Hotmail or GoogleMail you will never see the IP of the sending client PC. (For instance. I have a yahoo.co.uk email account,- if I was in Malaysia and sent a message, the recipient would see a UK based IP ).

 

If, on the other hand, you are looking at the domain portion of the sending mail account, and tracing that via WHOIS, be aware that it is extremely easy to spoof this information so that it looks to have come from somewhere else.

[Barney Trubble]

The IP address you see in the MIME headers on a mail message is the address of the mail server. With something like Hotmail or GoogleMail you will never see the IP of the sending client PC. (For instance. I have a yahoo.co.uk email account,- if I was in Malaysia and sent a message, the recipient would see a UK based IP ).

 

If, on the other hand, you are looking at the domain portion of the sending mail account, and tracing that via WHOIS, be aware that it is extremely easy to spoof this information so that it looks to have come from somewhere else.

 

Thanks Badger, very interesting stuff. I am glad you advised as I might have ruined a good relationship for someone. They asked me if I knew a way of finding out about this and I asumed that this was the way to go about it - obviously not.

 

So really, there is no fool-proof way of establishing if someone is sending an email from a specific country, using hotmail?

[badgerx16]

So really, there is no fool-proof way of establishing if someone is sending an email from a specific country, using hotmail?

 

There is no 100% foolproof way of determining this for any e-mail system if you don't have administrative access to the mail servers and access systems - I could just as easily send an email from my work's email system from a PC at the South Pole as from my desk, it's the access system's that would hold the key identifying data.