How to Get Email Headers: A Step-by-Step Guide

Email headers contain detailed information about the sender, the path the email took before reaching the recipient, and various technical details like timestamps and unique identifiers. They play a critical role in diagnosing issues with email delivery, identifying spam, and verifying the authenticity of the sender. They are essential for maintaining the integrity and reliability of email communication

A full Internet email headers include useful and sometime necessary diagnostic information. Typical reasons include:

• Blocking spammers (unsolicited junk email)
• Problems with delivery or receipt of a particular message
• Certain identity troubleshooting issues that involve fake "from" addresses.

Benefits of Email Headers

Before crafting a step-by-step guide on how to obtain email headers, it's beneficial to understand the advantages they offer. Email headers are crucial for several reasons:

• Troubleshooting Delivery Issues: Email headers provide a detailed path of the email’s journey from the sender to the recipient. This information is invaluable for IT professionals and network administrators to diagnose and resolve issues related to email delivery, such as delays or failures.
• Identifying Spam and Phishing Emails: By examining email headers, users and email services can identify potential spam or phishing attempts. Headers contain information that can reveal inconsistencies, such as a mismatch between the sender's email address and the originating domain, which is a common red flag for malicious emails.
• Authenticating Sender Identity: Email headers include various authentication details, like DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records, which help in verifying if the email is genuinely from the sender it claims to be from. This is crucial in preventing email spoofing and ensuring email security.
• Forensic Analysis: In the context of cybersecurity, email headers are vital for forensic analysis. They can be used to trace back the origin of an email, identifying the IP address and the servers it passed through. This information can be used in investigations related to cyber threats or email-based attacks.
• Improving Email Management: Advanced users and organizations can use header information to fine-tune email sorting and filtering rules. For example, headers can help in creating more effective rules for organizing emails into folders or prioritizing them based on the sender or the path they took.

How to Display Full Headers

Displaying headers in some email programs is an easy task. Howerver, both Outlook and Outlook Express are more difficult in this regard.

Select your email client from the list below:

• Gmail
• Horde
• Hotmail
• Mail for Mac OS X
• Mozilla
• Netscape
• Outlook and Outlook Express
• For Mozilla 1.4 and earlier
• For Mozilla 1.5 and later
• Outlook
• Outlook Express
• RoundCube
• Thunderbird
• AOL

Show me an example of a message with full headers.

Gmail

1. In Gmail, open 'original' email.
2. Click for the menu button (down arrow next to the Reply button).
3. Choose Show original.

Horde

1. Log in to Horde Webmail.
2. Open the email message.
3. Click the "Message Source" link in the text menu at the top of the message.

Hotmail

1. Open the email.
2. Click for the menu button (down arrow next to the Reply button).
3. Choose View source.

Mail for Mac OS X

1. From the View menu, select Message.
2. Select All Headers.

Mozilla & Netscape (all versions)

1. Turn off any HTML formatting that may be present.
2. From the Edit menu, select Preferences
3. Mail & Newsgroups.
4. Click Send
5. Format and select Convert the message to plain text...
6. Open the message in question so you can see it on your screen.

Outlook and Outlook Express

1. Right-click on the email message.
2. Select Properties.
3. Click Details.
4. Select Message Source.

For Mozilla 1.4 and earlier

1. From the View menu, select Headers and then All when displaying the message.

For Mozilla 1.5 and later

1. From the View menu, select Message Source.

Outlook

1. Turn off any HTML formatting that may be present.
2. From the Edit menu select Preferences
3. Mail & Newsgroups.
4. Click Send
5. Format and select Convert the message to plain text...
6. Open the message in question so you can see it on your screen.

Outlook Express

From the File menu, select Properties, then select the "Details" tab.

RoundCube:

1. Log in to RoundCube Webmail.
2. Double click to open the email message.
3. Click on the"More" option, then select the "Show Source" icon.

Thunderbird:

1. Open the message in question.
2. In the Menu, select View.
3. Select Message Source.

AOL

1. Open the message you want to view headers for.
2. In the Action menu, select View Message Source.

Example Full Header

Return-path: 
Envelope-to: [email protected]
Delivery-date: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:06:11 -0600
Received: from [46.165.209.232] (port=36531 helo=delivery.antispamcloud.com)
  by box309.%%brandDomain%% with esmtps (TLSv1:RC4-SHA:128)
  (Exim 4.82)
  (envelope-from )
  id 1WVSMM-0003oR-Ny
  for [email protected]; Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:06:10 -0600
Received: from mail-ig0-f195.google.com ([209.85.213.195])
  by mx7.antispamcloud.com with esmtps (TLSv1:RC4-SHA:128)
  (Exim 4.82)
  (envelope-from )
  id 1WVSMJ-00049k-3X
  for [email protected]; Wed, 02 Apr 2014 23:06:10 +0200
Received: by mail-ig0-f195.google.com with SMTP id uq10so212231igb.2
        for ; Wed, 02 Apr 2014 14:06:02 -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;
       %%brandCode%%bhovkRL3Im017b5m7rMRTWVa1olgzE1U+yr8FXykLSM=;
        b=I9n1lRLh2EbEic44CPWv6doKf6m9+z1G9tVmowbugj99p5jn5ImorW2oBqZ1BRbOFD
         3CnQkj7koUZfajma0Q0bbjJFB27CHfIMKvFLzOeWjeLP2bu3Z5X/d+lmCdFMSG8FQBoO
         c2Pz5n0d85zQyxkzy4lvL4D5kVevuJ5n+s7y6nCZTpYw1iwtQciGgr8XO77wGJq0S2FY
         WZC7jqB5c3CmpT8EytMEJwsH3UQAD7hxYq3FZHL7Ici89x8vDG/ZNQOla9TsfSrmC9qO
         mMLFWCZs1A1Hfe2gwOxBpRXgAqxf1/hlFfAf0CIIRTcD/03kSaWB7L/lPy++CTvkzpbB
         Ro4A==
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Received: by 10.42.107.67 with SMTP id c3mr2836464icp.28.1396472762166; Wed,
 02 Apr 2014 14:06:02 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.50.216.193 with HTTP; Wed, 2 Apr 2014 14:06:02 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2014 15:06:02 -0600
Message-ID: 
Subject: I can haz headers
From: %%brandName%% Tutorials
To: [email protected]
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=20cf302075e4ed71d604f615a6cd
Received-SPF: pass (mx7.antispamcloud.com: domain of gmail.com designates 209.85.213.195 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.85.213.195; envelope-from=%%brandName%%[email protected]; helo=mail-ig0-f195.google.com;
X-SPF-Result: mx7.antispamcloud.com: domain of gmail.com designates 209.85.213.195 as permitted sender
X-Filter-ID: XtLePq6GTMn8G68F0EmQveOvoFo7+04sHaU+aQGjobYi0opp2x9AytcIxrAv/iEuaWmMHd4i6wCz
 ASsx7ILyBvmrHcqsgpX6d4SIG6yP47bDMFgiN2el8cbE99y5VERdERWeKKG4PAQYNyavp7c49C7S
 5JHQ4xOsiG8cGbGY8Ju2qts0ILWtXEEZmkE2vLlbG/45LuYWJsWNKzGzAznZ/oq+Kj8XsfH6M1iC
 r9Pl7cS2FeLaw8TKFNoyhNvcmkCU2LIKoGx11NpkPoCtYTihVFvHjmVhGT2LR+SRHRnJSjexOaDD
 7DhwsYoQmALxTDsg5YE5enyccp7RH4WQio3uGcdGxQ6d5hivGO7oPpIBNraJdlCnvQ+khpxZdnh3
 Rg+eq6FYx9JcxaWalMnLitersKkGD1ysZpHhKaUh/7HiGlCtDNmfymkhdU0FFLdsJzH+bncTWq+l
 t2yLUdZkS4XDsBY2SdcAejSFbwPMuc/8+8bnfBK8XMz156Rrx4gJt1rfVwqJrV8TZUiWxNy0V2Qu
 LFYFvf25LVONYbYifH5OzZDcKP8EIfERgwZdrj+yX3bZ9HVqUY3tkBcsuKQ2aA7N/8zfymEUbuPk
 n06aNthuTeE=
Authentication-Results: antispamcloud.com; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=%%brandName%%[email protected]
Authentication-Results: antispamcloud.com; dkim=pass header.i=gmail.com
X-Spampanel-Class: unsure
X-Spampanel-Evidence: Combined (0.15)
X-Recommended-Action: accept
X-Identified-User: {0000:box309.%%brandDomain%%:local:local} {sentby:Delivered locally}

Summary

This guide shows why email headers are important: they help figure out email problems, spot spam, and check if an email is really from who it says it is. It gives steps to find these headers in different email services like Gmail and Outlook. This helps make email safer and more organized.

If you don't have an email yet, you can get a professional email that matches your domain. Reinforce your brand, improve your company's professional image, and build trust with your customers.