research help

I need help answering some questions I have and I know that antionline is a place to get help from people who are more knowledgeable about these things than I am.
please be patient while I explain my questions:

I use hotmail as my email server and with hotmail theres the option to show all the senders information that shows up under the subject line of the text.
it usually starts :
MIME-version: ************
Received: from *******
Received: from [ip address] *********
X-messsage-Info: ********
Message-ID:*********
Return Path: *senders email*
X-OriginalArrivalTime: *date and time* Filetime = [*number unknown to me*]

Can someone tell me what all this means and how I can use this info. to verify the legitimacy of the location and such of the sending computer?

Im an honest guy doing legitimate business who wants to be able to verify the ligitimacy and integrity of new overseas contacts.

Also - are there sites I can utilize to confirm the base location of fax numbers and IP addresses? for example: inputting a fax number and a search engine comes back with the country and/or city the no. is based from? and the same with IP addresses - without going through service providers to find out the location of computers based on IP address information?

Im not a computer wiz nor a computer dunce - those who answer please give as much detail and info as your time, resources and knowledge allow.

A pre-thank you to all respondants.


the best to all
ICSilk

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Can someone tell me what all this means and how I can use this info. to verify the legitimacy of the location and such of the sending computer?

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For the first part, Google comes up with some nice suggestions. Usually, if you want to verify where the email came from it's the Received From: <ip address> that'd help you the most. The reality is, however, this won't confirm WHO sent it. You can go one bit further by getting people to sign their emails using a Digital Signature. Basically, an eletronic verification as to who apparently sent the email. A Certificate Authority is really the only thing that could verify who someone is electronicly. CAs like Verisign do good business on this and stake their reputation on good verification.

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are there sites I can utilize to confirm the base location of fax numbers and IP addresses? for example: inputting a fax number and a search engine comes back with the country and/or city the no. is based from? and the same with IP addresses - without going through service providers to find out the location of computers based on IP address information?

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Yes and no. There are websites out there like http://www.infobel.com/teldir/ that offer online directory services but keep in mind that if someone puts down a false Fax number, proxies their IP and/or is on Dynamic Addressing you won't be able to trace it back. In addition, IP addresses, due to dynamic addressing, rarely are associated with a specific person or business. You can get it closer to location through a tool like NeoTrace Pro (unfortunately defunct but I'm sure there are similar tools like that out there. Try http://www.samspade.org)

Hope this helps.