Email, like snail mail, can go through a few hand-offs before actually arriving in the Inbox. Email headers provide information
on when an email was sent, which server it was sent from, if the mail went anywhere else from there, and when it was eventually handed off to the mail server for delivery.
While delivery to an Inbox can sometimes be delayed by the mail servers, it is important to note when email left the sender's server and when it was handed off to the portal mail server.
The portal's mail viewer gives the option to view full mail headers and even the option to download raw messages in .eml format. When in the mail viewer, click on "Show Full Headers" which gives a pop screen displaying the headers of the given email including a link to download the raw message:
Here is an example of how email headers can look:
From This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Thu Jun 27 14:28:14 2013
Received:from mail-wi0-f195.google.com (mail-wi0-f195.google.com [209.85.212.195]) by mail6.hyperoffice.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 84F4CC06C1 for ; Thu, 27 Jun 2013 14:28:07 -0400 (EDT)
Received:by mail-wi0-f195.google.com with SMTP id hj3so387995wib.6 for ; Thu, 27 Jun 2013 11:28:54 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature:v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=amoquqk+TJ4vjooTc9SLtZMfpqroZuEoWgOA9M+Eqvk=; b=0kmmouhKiS+oYnwr/fl5Pg8rm7jXVgEX04ZhEDynxiM5sIg4SvmNi2RGB/7MFYSTPK qDFOSIWdkT39Bqv8PTFxyXl7ZABTFXndKvlPorLijnoHbnDjFYYf5HjFIgnSJOonTkoY AotrXCkDc8qYt3oKhS9KI5H2KAkHpW5e5NHlEqSa+3ZNhqCzN4eVRaQLkxLe3qxlEsiB YETNoy5PNtI9T1uDJwM6dm7fsoXYTUiOwjUcNjrQ5+K5oan4fMGNVQq25pVKlXG2gxh9 Ab5TVvm9oI9z9v6tw1IzrW+T/BG9dNPrfvD7B4c4XYdv44ox4XOyMAFFhRkMoBm0ydTh f5lg== MIME-Version:1.0
X-Received:by 10.194.121.65 with SMTP id li1mr7521736wjb.24.1372357734215; Thu, 27 Jun 2013 11:28:54 -0700 (PDT)
Received:by 10.194.22.70 with HTTP; Thu, 27 Jun 2013 11:28:54 -0700 (PDT)
Date:Thu, 27 Jun 2013 14:28:54 -0400
Message-ID:
Subject:I Love Mail Headers
From:\"HyperOffice Support [External]\"
To:HyperOffice Support
The best way to read email headers is from the bottom up; here's what we can see from this example:
- Date:Thu, 27 Jun 2013 14:28:54 -0400
Message-ID:
Subject:I Love Mail Headers
From:\"HyperOffice Support [External]\" To:HyperOffice Support- This section shows us that "HyperOffice Support [External]" composed this email to "HyperOffice Support" which was sent on June 27, 2013 at 14:28:54 -0400 with a subject of "I Love Mail Headers." This section more or less is like the front of the envelope of a letter.
- Received:by mail-wi0-f195.google.com with SMTP id hj3so387995wib.6 for ; Thu, 27 Jun 2013 11:28:54 -0700 (PDT)
DKIM-Signature:v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=amoquqk+TJ4vjooTc9SLtZMfpqroZuEoWgOA9M+Eqvk=; b=0kmmouhKiS+oYnwr/fl5Pg8rm7jXVgEX04ZhEDynxiM5sIg4SvmNi2RGB/7MFYSTPK qDFOSIWdkT39Bqv8PTFxyXl7ZABTFXndKvlPorLijnoHbnDjFYYf5HjFIgnSJOonTkoY AotrXCkDc8qYt3oKhS9KI5H2KAkHpW5e5NHlEqSa+3ZNhqCzN4eVRaQLkxLe3qxlEsiB YETNoy5PNtI9T1uDJwM6dm7fsoXYTUiOwjUcNjrQ5+K5oan4fMGNVQq25pVKlXG2gxh9 Ab5TVvm9oI9z9v6tw1IzrW+T/BG9dNPrfvD7B4c4XYdv44ox4XOyMAFFhRkMoBm0ydTh f5lg== MIME-Version:1.0
X-Received:by 10.194.121.65 with SMTP id li1mr7521736wjb.24.1372357734215; Thu, 27 Jun 2013 11:28:54 -0700 (PDT)
Received:by 10.194.22.70 with HTTP; Thu, 27 Jun 2013 11:28:54 -0700 (PDT)- This section tells us where the email was through. In this case, the message was sent through mail-wi0-f195.google.com on June 27, 2013 at 11:28:54 -0700.
- From This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Thu Jun 27 14:28:14 2013
Received:from mail-wi0-f195.google.com (mail-wi0-f195.google.com [209.85.212.195]) by mail6.hyperoffice.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 84F4CC06C1 for ; Thu, 27 Jun 2013 14:28:07 -0400 (EDT)- This section tells us that at 14:28:07 -0400 on June 27, 2013, mail-wi0-f195.google.com handed-off this email to mail6.hyperoffice.com, a service provider's mail server.
- This also tells us that the mail server delivered the email to the Inbox at 14:28:14, seven seconds after it was handed-off to the portal's mail servers.