How do I view email headers of an email in Linux hosting ?

Email header is the raw data of an email message. When someone sends an email, email headers contains the informations when the email was sent, who originally sent, Subject of the email etc.

Linux reseller hosting provides user friendly email services. In Linux cPanel based webmail interfaces, you can get email headers of emails thru the below steps:

Email headers in Roundcube

Email headers in Horde

Email headers in Squirrelmail

Email headers in Outlook 2013

Login to the email account in Outlook 2013
Double-click on the message to open it in the new window
From the Files tab select Info
Click on Properties
Full email headers are located inside the Headers box

Email headers in Thunderbird

Email headers in Gmail

Log into Gmail
Open the message
Click the down arrow next to Reply, at the top-right of the message panel
Select Show original
The full headers will appear in a new window

Email headers in Yahoo

Log into Yahoo webmail
Open the message
Click Full Headers at the top of your message
The full headers will appear above the message text

Email headers in MSN Hotmail

Log into MSN Hotmail
Click into your Inbox
Hover (do NOT click) over the email for which you want to see the headers
Right click to get a new menu of options
Choose the “View message source” option
Now, the full headers for the email you were hovering on will be displayed

Email headers in Windows Live Hotmail

Log into Windows Live Hotmail.
Click on the desired message in the list with the right mouse button.
Select View source from the menu.

Understanding of Email headers

Example Email Header

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From: Test user (testuser@gmail.com)
Subject: article: Understanding of Email header
Date: January 25, 2011 3:30:58 PM PDT
To: user@example.com
Return-Path: <testuser@gmail.com>
Envelope-To: user@example.com
Delivery-Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:31:01 -0700
Received: from po-out-1718.google.com ([x.x.x.x]:54907) by cl35.gs01.testserver.com with esmtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from <testuser@gmail.com>) id 1KDoNH-0000f0-RL for user@example.com; Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:31:01 -0700
Received: by po-out-1718.google.com with SMTP id y22so795146pof.4 for <user@example.com>; Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:30:58 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by x.x.x.x with SMTP id t17mr3929916rvm.251.1214951458741; Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:30:58 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by x.x.x.x with HTTP; Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:30:58 -0700 (PDT)
Dkim-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to :subject:mime-version:content-type; bh=+JqkmVt+sHDFIGX5jKp3oP18LQf10VQjAmZAKl1lspY=; b=F87jySDZnMayyitVxLdHcQNL073DytKRyrRh84GNsI24IRNakn0oOfrC2luliNvdea LGTk3adIrzt+N96GyMseWz8T9xE6O/sAI16db48q4Iqkd7uOiDvFsvS3CUQlNhybNw8m CH/o8eELTN0zbSbn5Trp0dkRYXhMX8FTAwrH0=
Message-Id: <c8f49cec0807011530k11196ad4p7cb4b9420f2ae752@mail.gmail.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=”—-=_Part_3927_12044027.1214951458678″
X-Spam-Status: score=3.7 tests=DNS_FROM_RFC_POST, HTML_00_10, HTML_MESSAGE, HTML_SHORT_LENGTH version=3.1.7
X-Spam-Level: ***
Message Body: This is a support article that provides information on Understanding of Email header.

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An Email header has many informations about the particular email. The below are the general informations

From: This is an email address the sender uses to send her message
Subject: This indicates the subject of the email message
Date: This indicates the date and time the email message was composed
To: This indicates to whom the message was addressed, but may not contain the recipient’s address
Return-Path: This indicates the email address for return mail. This is the same as “Reply-To:”
Envelope-To: This indicates that the email was delivered to the mailbox of a subscriber whose email address is user@example.com
Delivery-Date: This indicates the date and time at which the email was received by the remote mail service or email client.
Received: This is the most important part of the email header and is usually the most reliable. They form a list of all the servers/computers through which the message traveled in order to reach the recipient.
The received lines are best read from bottom to top. That is, the first “Received:” line is your own system or mail server. The last “Received:” line is where the mail originated. Each mail system has their own style of “Received:” line. A “Received:” line typically identifies the machine that received the mail and the machine from which the mail was received.
Dkim-Signature: This information allows receiving server to verify if the email message was sent by legal owner of that domain name.
Message-Id: This indicates a unique string assigned by the mail system when the message is first created. These can easily be forged.
Mime-Version: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email.
Content-Type: This indicates the format of the email message, such as html or plaintext.
X-Spam-Status: This indicates a spam score created by the service or mail client for the email message.
X-Spam-Level: This indicates a spam score usually created by your service or mail client for the email message.
Message Body: This contains the actual content of the email itself, written by the sender.

Finding the original sender

The easiest way for finding the original sender is by looking for the X-Originating-IP header. This header is important since it tells you the IP address of the computer that had sent the email.

If you cannot find the X-Originating-IP header, then you will have to sift through the Received headers to find the sender’s IP address.