Email timestamp

S

srqwebguy

Verified User
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
78
I have a server set in Central time, but for some reason the emails are several hours off. Email appears to be 7 hours or so ahead of the server time. Is there somewhere that this may be adjusted independently?
 
I think we need to see the full headers because some timestamps are set by the server and some are set by the sender's computer.
 
I just sent myself a test email from one of the domains for purposes of pasting the header in.

(Please excuse my ignorance here)

When the email arrived on my machine, it read 12:07PM (this would be correct, as my email server is in California, and and is 3 hours behind me. It was 3:07PM local when I sent it)

When I opened the email, it read 8:04PM (???) The header is below. I did edit the email addresses for spider/spam purposes. I appreciate your help!

Return-Path: <lynne at sarasotafitness.com>
Delivered-To: 8-bob at scenemasters.com
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on dp36.lookwhois.com
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.5 required=7.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,HTML_MESSAGE,
HTML_MIME_NO_HTML_TAG,HTML_SHORT_LENGTH,MIME_HTML_ONLY,
RCVD_NUMERIC_HELO autolearn=no version=3.1.3
Received: (qmail 3022 invoked from network); 9 May 2007 15:07:02 -0400
Received: by simscan 1.1.0 ppid: 3006, pid: 3015, t: 0.0948s
scanners: clamav: 0.88.5/m:43/d:3224
Received: from d3305.servadmin.com (12.47.46.201)
by sertomasarasota.com with (DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA encrypted) SMTP; 9 May 2007 15:07:02 -0400
Received-SPF: pass (sertomasarasota.com: SPF record at sarasotafitness.com designates 12.47.46.201 as permitted sender)
Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=208.49.185.2)
by D3305.servadmin.com with esmtpa (Exim 4.60)
(envelope-from <lynne at sarasotafitness.com>)
id 1HlyxN-0002WC-Sd
for bob at scenemasters.com; Wed, 09 May 2007 22:04:41 -0500
Received: from phpmailer ([208.49.185.2])
by 208.49.185.2 with HTTP (UebiMiau);
Wed, 9 May 2007 22:04:41 -0500
Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 22:04:41 -0500
To: bob at scenemasters.com
From: Lynne <lynne at sarasotafitness.com>
Reply-to: Lynne <lynne at sarasotafitness.com>
Subject: Test of email time
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
X-Priority: 3
X-Mailer: UebiMiau [PHPMailer version 1.70]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1"
X-RegEx-Score: 101.2
X-RegEx: [21.2] HTML_MESSAGE HTML included in message
X-RegEx: [80.0] MIME_HTML_ONLY Message only has text/html MIME parts
X-SpamPal: PASS
 
Last edited:
Headers are read from the bottom up...
Code: 
Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 22:04:41 -0500
the date set by the sender's system says 10:04 PM, -0500. -0500 is often called Eastern Standard time but it's certainly not the only timezone that would resolve to -0700. If indeed it does stand for EST than the sender's system may be set wrong, as the northern hemisphere is most observing daylight savings time, and computers on the US east coast should be set for EDT (-0400).
Code: 
Received: from phpmailer ([208.49.185.2])
by 208.49.185.2 with HTTP (UebiMiau);
Wed, 9 May 2007 22:04:41 -0500
This header line (yes, it's actually only one line) shows the same date/time, as it should, since in this case both were set by Uebimiau, and therefore represent time on the server (the server has no way of knowing the user's local time, but Uebimiau has a user setting for the time offset, under Preferences.
Code: 
Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=208.49.185.2)
by D3305.servadmin.com with esmtpa (Exim 4.60)
(envelope-from <lynne at sarasotafitness.com>)
id 1HlyxN-0002WC-Sd
for bob at scenemasters.com; Wed, 09 May 2007 22:04:41 -0500
The above header line shows us the same time, as well it should; this line was added by the same server.

It's important to note that Wed, 09 May 2007 22:04:41 -0500 equates to 10 May 2007 03:04:41 (0000) [GMT] before we continue with our analysis.
Code: 
Received: from d3305.servadmin.com (12.47.46.201)
by sertomasarasota.com with (DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA encrypted) SMTP; 9 May 2007 15:07:02 -0400
This header line was added by the destination server. The time 9 May 2007 15:07:02 -0400 equates to 9 May 2007 19:07:02 (0000)[gmt].

We know that one of these times must be incorrect, because mail leaving one server on May 10th at 03:04:41 0000 couldn't possibly arrive on the next server at May 9th at 19:07:02 0000; if it did, it would have had to travel back in time, and the rules of quantum mechanics notwithstanding, in the physical world it's unlikely that happened. It's more likely that one of the servers has it's time set wrong; for the purpose of furthering this discussion in the future we'll only consider that the times from here on are consistent.
Code: 
Received: (qmail 3022 invoked from network); 9 May 2007 15:07:02 -0400
The next timestamp comes from the same (recipient) server, and the times are the same, so this is as correct.

There are no additional timestamps in the headers. The next date/time that appears will no doubt come from your local MUA, and is rewritten depending on the offset of the original date stamp (remember, that was -0500) and the datestamp of the system on which your MUA (which could also be a webmail program on the server) resides.

While I imagine this has all made it a bit more confusing, I hope it helps. Really, I do ;) .

Jeff
 
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