Reverse IP Address Search
Devices in a network are assigned IP addresses and domain names. IP address is a series of numbers from 0 to 255 separated by dots into four parts. Domain name is the easily identifiable name given to web servers which is visible to the user. IP addresses are normally hidden from public view. IP addresses and domain names are used in searching for a particular computer or any other device connected to the network. When the domain name is used to track devices, it is forward lookup, and when a domain name is tracked down with a known IP address, it is reverse lookup.
Reverse IP address search is used by many network services to verify the identity of the client. In this search, the IP address is mapped to a domain name. Thus, if you know the IP address of a website, you can find out the domain name. This type of IP address search is most useful in finding out the identity of the sender of anonymous emails and spam mails.
Usually emails have the IP address of the sender stored in email headers. Email headers contain the routing data of the mail from source to destination. It has the sender’s name and IP address and is delivered along with the message. In some cases, the email header will not be visible to the person receiving the mail. However, most of the email clients provide options to display the headers. There will be several lines of data in email headers, the one that starts with ‘Received: from.’ indicates the source of the mail. It will have the email address and IP address of the sender. Sometimes, there will be more than one ‘Received: from.’ lines in the header. This shows that the mail has passed through several email servers. The last ‘Received: from.’ line is the person who has sent the mail. It is also possible that a spammer has inserted fake ‘Received: from.’ lines into the email header to perplex the receiver of the mail.
Numerous free email address locators are available online to track the sender of spam mails and other immodest mails. These tools trace the domain name of the sender from the IP address in the email header. The geographical location and contact details of an anonymous email sender can be looked up with email address locators. The reverse email lookup tools work in two steps: extract the email header, and then trace the complete email route using a tracer tool. Once you get the originating IP address, you can do a reverse IP address search to find out who has sent the mail.