The Cyberspace Project
 An exploration into the world of emails

Welcome to the Cyberspace Project. This project was initiated because of the course I am involved in: Cyberspace. Here I try to find out something about the emails that I receive from different people in different countries. It is only a small sample, since I cannot trace out all the emails I receive, given the time constraints.

The idea to take a peek into my emails came from looking at the Atlas of Cyberspaces , an initiative launched by Martin Dodge based at Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at University College London (UCL). You can take a look at this page - Tracing Paths Through The Internet - to gather an idea of what I am trying to do here.

There are basically many different types of tracers available, from the DOS-based tracer (such as tracert) to the Web-based tracer (such as Maproute) to Windows-based tracers (such as Visual Route). In this project, I am going to use a DOS-based tracer (tracert) which shows the routes from the sender to the college server at UCL.

Aims:
 

  1. To trace the origin of emails
  2. To explore the route emails take via the Internet
  3. To determine how emails addressed to redirecting addresses pointing to the same account travel in different routes


There are different websites out there that have utilised tracert for various purposes. Some have implemented tracert as a cgi-bin program in their web directories to allow users to check for faulty connections to their servers, or to see how they are connected to the servers they are accessing. Others place a route tracing program primarily to allow users to see for themselves the speed of Internet connection they have. Furthermore, several companies use this utility to prove to prospective customers the fast connection they can provide.

Follow the links below to see for yourself my attempts at route tracing, and also different areas concerning route tracing.
 

  Tracing the routes for my emails.

  Types of route tracers available. Available!

  An article 'Tracing Paths Through The Internet'.  Available!

  How tracers are used. Available!

  Some websites on route tracing. Available!

arrow  How these pages are constructed. Available!

 

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I am not an expert on this area, but I certainly can provide some sort of guide in explaining further what all these mean.

Email me if you have any queries, or Martin Dodge if you are interested in his area of research.

cyberspace project  The Gateway Zone
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