What Is An Email's Traceroute?

Most of the time, when you send an email, it doesn't go directly to the intended recipient, so it is often interesting to look at a message's traceroute. Each one of the servers records on the email's IP address some basic information: the hop number, ping time, IP address, and sometimes host name. All of this information marks the traceroute, which is a security feature that helps users determine not only how an email got to you, but where it came from originally.

There are federal restrictions for spammers, which include a ban on forging email header data, but it is always good to double check any suspicious unsolicited emails. The traceroute allows you to get a better sense of the history and legitimacy of a message, and it will be your primary piece of evidence if you choose to report any illicit spamming activities. Not only can you tell where your email is from, and where it has been, you can also tell how long it took to make each jump. This number, the ping time, is recorded in the traceroute and can be helpful it determining if this information has been tampered with.

Whether you want to see the route a message took to get to you, or you are trying to catch a spammer in his tracks, the traceroute can help you get more information about any email. The internet has many great resources you can use in your research, including traceroute visualization and reverse email address lookups. Not only can you see a full-color representation of an email's journey, you can find out more information about various email addresses along the route, and the individual or company names attached to them.

So if you want to find out who owns an e-mail address or other information about a server along an email's traceroute, the internet is a great resource for your research. No matter where an email came from, you can find out.