eMailTrackerPro 2006 v6.1h - User Guide and FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions - eMailTrackerPro

1. Q: What are email 'Internet Headers'?
   A: Internet headers show the path of an email from its origin to destination. When an email travels across the Internet it passes through servers that route the email to its final destination. Each routing server that handles the email adds a record into the email header to identify itself, indicating where it was received from and where it was then sent to, providing an useful audit trail should something go wrong during the email's journey across the Internet.
   
   
2. Q: What is the difference between tracing an email address and tracing an email message?
   A: Tracing an email address (i.e. name@company.com) reports the mail server for the address, and is useful for identifying the company and network providing service for the address, it does not provide specific information about the sender. As email addresses can be easily forged, the information provided may not be reliable for purposes of investigating and reporting email abuse.
   
   Tracing an email message provides much more information regarding the sender. Each email message includes an Internet header with valuable information, eMailTrackerPro analyzes the message header and reports the IP address of the computer where the message originated, its estimated location, the individual or organization the IP address is registered to, the network provider, and additional information as available.
   
   
3. Q: Why do the Internet applications running at the destination matter?
   A: The type of applications running on a target system is useful information for investigating IP addresses or Internet hosts, as it can provide insight into the ownership and geographical location. The most common applications on the Internet are web servers (websites), mail servers (email) and file transfer servers (file downloads). As an example, web server applications (such as www.visualware.com) are particularly useful because web pages along the lines of 'contact us' often exist to provide details such as names, phone numbers and other contact related information.
   
   
4. Q: Why are database updates important?
   A: With Internet changes, encompassing new networks, extensions to old networks, new routers, new IP devices and new user's, happening every minute any IP-to-location database rapidly loses value as the results become more inaccurate with passing time. It is therefore important that any IP geo-location database is updated and maintained on a regular basis. Many of the network changes will affect IP ownership details including the important contact information for IP addresses and Domains. Maintaining up-to-date IP network information ensures that tracked locations are more precise and helps to further qualify the ownership and accuracy of the final location being tracked.
   
   
5. Q: Can an email message be traced regardless of when it was sent?
   A: As IP addresses can change periodically, tracing an email message will provide the most accurate results when the message is first received. The older an email message is, the higher the possibility that the IP address in the message header may not pertain to computer the message was sent from.
   
   
6. Q: Does eMailTrackerPro work with AOL email messages?
   A: Due to AOL's network routing, AOL messages show as originating in the AOL Manassas or Sterling, Virginia data center. eMailTrackerPro does work with most all other email services, including Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, etc.
   
   
7. Q: What does 'unknown' in the route table of the identification report mean?
   A: Occasionally a router on the Internet does not respond correctly to an inbound packet. This is usually due to high traffic at the hop, but occasionally it is because the router does not conform to standards correctly. When this happens the router in question does not correctly identify itself and is indicated by 'unknown' in the route table of the identification report.