Is it possible to identify from where email was sent?

Question

I use GMail. If I receive a mail from someone, is it possible to know from which country the email was sent. If the other person also sent the mail using GMail. Is it possible to override the server using any proxy tool or something like that?

Answer 1

Generally, no, you can't really tell where the person was physically sitting when they sent the email.

Given that, you can get some possible hints from the email headers, tho' the headers can be faked. In gmail, you can view the email headers by clicking the down arrow next to "Reply", at the top-right of the message pane, then select "Show original". (see here for details)

The end of the headers that start with "Received:" tell what servers sent the mail. The header closest to the text is the originating server. If you can trust the header.

Once you know the server name, you can try using a whois server to find out where the original ISP is located - that might (maybe) give you a hint as to the origin of the email. Maybe.

Answer 2

Once you come to know the address from where the email was sent (as pointed by Shannon), you can use following site to find the location of that IP address: http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm?Getlocation

(Above would give you the server IP Address location, but may not be able to point the exact source)

Answer 3

I don't know about gmail to gmail posts (I don't use gmail), Google might have safeguards in place.

The general answer is NO, you can't know, since the sender can pretty much fake any header field by controlling the client (e.g. self coded client) or the (smtp) server.

Answer 4

I think I saw something in google's labs options ... it checks whether the mail you received is from the contact as before. Further from that, I really can't tell ... never used it.