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Ideas/Section-8
All e-mails have one
critical property, called the Header. The header
contains all of the technical information about the route that takes
place
when the email message travels from the origin to the relay to the
destination. Think of the header as visa stamps on a passport. If
a letter
courier has to travel through 15 countries to deliver a letter to
its final
destination, each country that the courier passes through must stamp
the
courier's passport. That is what happens to your email as it passes
through
the various relays (email servers) to eventually reach its destination.
Here's a sample header:
-----------------------------------------
X-Authentication-Warning: smtp.gte.net:
1Cust5.max17.los-angeles.ca.ms.uu.net
mci.lv: mci.ix.netcom.net[150.34.78.10.33] didn't use HELO protocol
X-Sender: rxuyxben@mail.gte.net
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 21:25:05 -0700
-----------------------------------------
Every header contains information about
the computer that your mail passed
through. Since every computer connected to the Internet is represented
by
an IP address and a domain name, these are the two main pieces of
information
you are going to find in your e-mail's header.
IP ADDRESS
An IP Address is a numeric code (ie. 204.199.212.30)
that uniquely identifies
a computer on the Internet. Any technically savvy Internet user
can easily
trace an IP address to the real owner of that particular machine.
DOMAIN NAME
A Domain Name is a name that corresponds
with an IP address. For example
"adking.com". Generally, domain names were invented because
they were easier
to remember than IP addresses. But once again, any technically savvy
Internet user can easily trace a domain name to the real owner of
that
particular machine.
In every email header, one can see the
IP address and domain of the computer
from where the message originated, the IP address and domain of
the computer
that relayed the message, and the IP address and domain of the final
destination.
This header information is also the most
important reason why bulk email is
vulnerable to people who do not want any form of commerce on the
Internet.
You see, the information in this wonderful email header is used
by
anti-commercial-email people to make marketing on the Internet quite
miserable!! Without the header, any interference with your business
would
magically disappear!!
Everyone knows that bulk emailers do not
really want to offend people. This
would be extremely unproductive for their purpose. How could a marketer
make
money if all of their potential clients are offended? The reality
is that
most people don't mind getting solicited through email. In fact,
email is
sometimes one of the best ways people get information about products
and
services they did not even know existed. Furthermore, many people
buy from
email offers.
However, one of the biggest problem that bulk emailers face is this:
If even
1 out of 10,000 recipients complains, the bulk emailers'
dialup-service-providers receive enough complaints to cancel their
accounts!
To lower the complaint rate, many bulk
emailers began to forge their return
addresses, using crazy return addresses like noone@nowhere.xxx.
For a short time, people who were
new to the Internet system were fooled by
this. But the problem was that, even if you show a forged return
address,
your email header still shows the relays where your email passed
through.
As Internet users became more educated in deciphering email headers,
the
forging tactics actually generated even more angry complaints. If
your
Internet Access Provider is not bulk email friendly (and chances
are they
won't be), it is best to find an Internet access provider who would
be
willing to let you send thousands of emails through their servers.
Or you
can get your own email server.
