Tech Directions - March 2008 - (Page 14)

Network Utility in the Applications/ Utilities folder. Select the Lookup tab and type the IP address. You can use the domain name to report spam, harassment, and other Armed with either the IP protocol or the domain name, you can use the whois program to uncover more information. abuse. You can send a complaint to the sender’s Internet service provider by writing to abuse@domain, where “domain” is the domain name you uncovered. Armed with either the IP protocol or the domain name, you can use the whois program to uncover more information, such as the associated phone numbers and other contact information on record. A number of Web sites offer free whois service, including Whois.Net (www.whois.net). Other IP addresses in the Received line show the e-mail’s trans- mission path from originating computer to you. Some spammers, however, engage in IP “spoofing,” forging the headers in their e-mails, or they access computers over the Internet that are unprotected by firewall software and turn them into “zombies,” then send out spam from them. Another interesting line in an email header is the Return-Path line. This line specifies the e-mail address where any “bounced” or failed emails go. E-mail transmissions can fail if the recipient’s e-mail address is no longer valid or is misspelled, if the recipient’s e-mail server is busy, if the recipient’s e-mail server blocks the message because it believes it’s spam, if the recipient’s in-box is full, or if an error occurs at some transmission point along the way. The Content-Type line is where the software used by the sender indicates to the recipient’s e-mail program whether the message will be plain text (text/plain) or formatted HTML (multipart/html or multipart/alternative), which is the same formatting system used by Web pages. Spam filters often use header lines that begin with X to explain why they flagged a particular e-mail as spam. The above provides the basics of what you can do with e-mail headers. England’s University of Bath offers more detailed information about the anatomy of e-mail messages (www. bath.ac.uk/bucs/email/). StopSpam (www.stopspam. org/email/headers. html) provides tips on reading e-mail headers along with much other information about reducing unwanted mass e-mails. The University of Delaware maintains a site on cyber crime (128.175. 24.251/default.htm) where you can get detailed instructions on how to view e-mail headers in more than 20 different e-mail programs as well as advice on how to avoid becoming the victim of advance fee fraud, identity theft, and other online crimes. About.com also has a good page on e-mail headers (email.about.com/ cs/spamgeneral/a/spam_headers. htm). More than Fun Answers U P A RA PE T I JAL I GUS SE T Y SC Q UO I N S N S U L F AC A D E T I K ZON I N N L M O AH RABB OUS I E Y O X T N A LCOV E RDO Y OR E B MN X UTTLE I C F CHAMF F E V E A R DIGI T I Z I O N O V E R H A N G N ET W E LATT IC R I M V M ER E N R E ER R W Y T H E Need projects for Electricity, Electronics, or Computer Technology? Visit www.techdirections.com/ projectsE.html 14 techdirections ◆ MARCH 2008 http://www.bath.ac.uk/bucs/email/ http://www.bath.ac.uk/bucs/email/ http://www.stopspam.org/email/headers.html http://www.stopspam.org/email/headers.html http://128.175.24.251/default.htm http://128.175.24.251/default.htm http://About.com http://www.whois.net http://email.about.com/cs/spamgeneral/a/spam_headers.htm http://email.about.com/cs/spamgeneral/a/spam_headers.htm http://www.tools4schools.com http://www.tools4schools.com http://www.techdirections.com/projectsE.html

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Tech Directions - March 2008 Technically Speaking Contents Direct from Washington The News Report Technology’s Past Technology Today Mastering Computers HDTV—Understanding the New, Dealing with the Old Technical Studies Lead to Dream Career Fill and Fund Your CAD Classroom with These Exciting Strategies STEM Progress in Katrina’s Wake School Web Site of the Month Spring Spotlight More than Fun

Tech Directions - March 2008

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