On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 14:46:29 -0800, Dig wrote:

Can someone help me understand the time signatures on emails? Every email I
get seems to have a time signature that does not match the time I receive it.
Where does this time signature come from?

Is it the time it is sent? Time received? Time through the net?

Thanks

In the email I am looking at, the time in the MS Outlook Express "Received"
column seems to match the time in the topmost "Received: from * by *"
header line.

Compared two messages:

MSOE matched the header:

| Received: from smtp112.sbc.mail.mud.yahoo.com ([68.142.198.211]) by bay0-mc7-f16.bay0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.211);
| Sun, 12 Mar 2006 12:25:03 -0800

MSOE displays one hour earlier than the header:

| Received: from 131.107.70.12 (EHLO ext-imc-04.partners.extranet.microsoft.com) (131.107.70.12)
| by mta155.mail.mud.yahoo.com with SMTP; Tue, 09 Aug 2005 20:45:10 -0700

For the last one, there is one other anomaly: The header is the topmost
Received header line of the original message; but it was forwarded, and the
topmost Received header is not the one whose time is displayed by MSOE:

| Return-path:
| Received: from mta155.mail.mud.yahoo.com (68.142.202.87) by aosake.net (Mercury/32 v4.01b) ID MG000006;
| 9 Aug 2005 20:52:06 -0700
| X-Yahoo-Forwarded: from to
| X-Rocket-Track: 1: 100 ; IPCR=n-w0,n100,g0 ; IP=131.107.70.12 ; SERVER=68.142.202.232 # cat=UK; info=ip:NNip=131.107.70.12,policy=n-w0,n100,g0;sv:UKip=68.142.202.232;sg:UKsize=22 ,cnt=1
| X-Originating-IP: [131.107.70.12]
| Authentication-Results: mta155.mail.mud.yahoo.com
| from=microsoft.com; domainkeys=neutral (no sig)
| Received: from 131.107.70.12 (EHLO ext-imc-04.partners.extranet.microsoft.com) (131.107.70.12)
| by mta155.mail.mud.yahoo.com with SMTP; Tue, 09 Aug 2005 20:45:10 -0700

MSOE displays "8/9/2005 19:45" for this one. Also, when MSOE is off by one
hour, adding the current UTC offset to the displayed time produces the same
sum as adding the header line UTC offset to the header line time. I.e.:

Header line time plus header line UTC offset:
20:45:10 + 0700 = 27:45:10 (or, "8/10/05 3:45:10")

Current MSOE displayed time + current UTC offset:
19:45 + 0800 = 27:45 (or,"8/10/05 3:45")

--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum