hotmail does not mask the originating IP number. Simply look for a line in the email header... "X-Originating-IP: [XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX]" In Eudora it appears immediately above the "From:" tag in either simple or advanced mode. Your email client may be different. As an additional check there are search tools available at http://www.samspade.org where you can cut 'n paste the entire header & it will decipher it for you.