is it possible to find out ip address sending me emails?

[Barfo]

I've been getting several harassing emails lately, they're from someone that knows me from what hey say, is it possible to find out the ip number of the computer sending them?
They're all from free web mail accounts.

 

[Crusty]

Not likely, you could look through the headers of the email perhaps but chances are if they are using multiple free web accounts there will not be much information that you could use.

You can always report the emails to the sites, but they won't give you any information unless you get the police involved.

 

[law9933]

Does this work??

http://www.whois.net/whois_new....clok.creative&tld=com

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: law9933
Does this work??

http://www.whois.net/whois_new....clok.creative&tld=com

What is a whois of that domain going to tell him? Wrong thread perhaps?

He's getting emails from places like yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc. Those are free web mail accounts, so whoever this is just signs up for a new account and sends an email. The only information a whois of any domain related to that process will tell you is who owns yahoo, gmail et all.

 

[Barfo]

Hmm, not worth reporting to the police, it's just someone being a jackass. Thought there would be an easy way to find out who it is but I'll just keep blocking them as they arrive. Thanks.

 

[1ceHacka]

From my experience, there can sometimes be enough information in the email headers to track the IP back to its origin. It depend on the configuration/settings the email provider is using however. Its worth a check though.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: 1ceHacka
From my experience, there can sometimes be enough information in the email headers to track the IP back to its origin. It depend on the configuration/settings the email provider is using however. Its worth a check though.

The problem is that the emails were coming from a webmail service, so unless the person is using a program like Outlook to send using SMTP instead of using the web interface there's a very slim chance there's anything that identifies the person.

 

[NesuD]

Originally posted by: Crusty

Originally posted by: 1ceHacka
From my experience, there can sometimes be enough information in the email headers to track the IP back to its origin. It depend on the configuration/settings the email provider is using however. Its worth a check though.

The problem is that the emails were coming from a webmail service, so unless the person is using a program like Outlook to send using SMTP instead of using the web interface there's a very slim chance there's anything that identifies the person.

Not true. I just checked an email my wife sent me from her office using hotmail in a web browser and the originating IP address in the emails internet headers matched up with the ip address reported in the headers of an email she sent from her outlook client using her work email account. I'm sure you won't get it all the time but there are good odds that you can get it most of the time.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: NesuD

Originally posted by: Crusty

Originally posted by: 1ceHacka
From my experience, there can sometimes be enough information in the email headers to track the IP back to its origin. It depend on the configuration/settings the email provider is using however. Its worth a check though.

The problem is that the emails were coming from a webmail service, so unless the person is using a program like Outlook to send using SMTP instead of using the web interface there's a very slim chance there's anything that identifies the person.

Not true. I just checked an email my wife sent me from her office using hotmail in a web browser and the originating IP address in the emails internet headers matched up with the ip address reported in the headers of an email she sent from her outlook client using her work email account. I'm sure you won't get it all the time but there are good odds that you can get it most of the time.

That's exactly what I said, there's no guarantee because the webmail service can do whatever they please to your headers as they create the email.

For example, gmail does not include the IP address of the person sending the mail through the web interface.

Not only that, but since it's web based it's oh so easy to use one of a million free proxy servers to hide your IP anyways so even if you did get an IP from the headers you have no way of knowing whether or not it's even their real IP address.