Timestamps in E-Mail Header

[sirboy1992]

Hello everyone,

I have a question concerning the posted E-Mail Header below. I ought to recieve an E-Mail at a certain time. I recieved it too late. The sender claims he sent it in time. How's the delay possible?

Could you please explain what can be deduced from the information below - was it a "technical issue" or could someone manipulate the timestamps? Thanks in advance!!
(My email is censored to XXX@XXX and the sender's one is censored to YYY@YYY.)

I copied this from my e-mail-site:


Received: from gmailer.gwdg.de ([134.76.11.17]) by mx-ha.gmx.net (mxgmx114 [212.227.17.5]) with ESMTPS (Nemesis) id 1MPHmP-1iLkoF2rEr-00Pco4 for <XXX@XXX>; Mon, 16 Dec 2019 15:02:46 +0100
Received: from excmbx-24.um.gwdg.de ([134.76.9.234] helo=email.gwdg.de) by mailer.gwdg.de with esmtp (GWDG Mailer) (envelope-from <YYY@YYY>) id 1igmoM-00036F-46 for XXX@XXX; Mon, 16 Dec 2019 10:37:06 +0100
Received: from excmbx-14.um.gwdg.de (134.76.9.225) by excmbx-24.um.gwdg.de (134.76.9.234) with Microsoft SMTP Server (version=TLS1_2, cipher=TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256_P256) id 15.1.1847.3; Mon, 16 Dec 2019 10:35:58 +0100
Received: from excmbx-14.um.gwdg.de ([fe80::59fd:666a:7751:299b]) by excmbx-14.um.gwdg.de ([fe80::59fd:666a:7751:299b%20]) with mapi id 15.01.1847.005; Mon, 16 Dec 2019 10:36:31 +0100

[Berenburger]

There was a 4 hours delay on hop 4.

Hop	Delay	From   By	With	Time (UTC)
1	*	excmbx-14.um.gwdg.de fe80::59fd:666a:7751:299b	excmbx-14.um.gwdg.de fe80::59fd:666a:7751:299b	mapi	12/16/2019 9:36:31 AM	
2	*	excmbx-14.um.gwdg.de 134.76.9.225	excmbx-24.um.gwdg.de 134.76.9.234	Microsoft SMTP Server (version=TLS1_2, cipher=TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256_P256)	12/16/2019 9:35:58 AM	
3	1 minutes	excmbx-24.um.gwdg.de 134.76.9.234	mailer.gwdg.de	esmtp (GWDG Mailer) (envelope-from <YYY@YYY>)	12/16/2019 9:37:06 AM	
4	4 hour	gmailer.gwdg.de 134.76.11.17	mx-ha.gmx.net 212.227.17.5	ESMTPS (Nemesis)	12/16/2019 2:02:46 PM

BTW, email is not suitable for instant messaging. Delay is always possible due to the nature of how email communication is built.

[sirboy1992]

Thank's for your reply. I understand that there is a 4 hour delay - but why?

And how are timestamps generated? By E-mail-sofware, by a server?

[somdcomputerguy]

Originally Posted by sirboy1992

I understand that there is a 4 hour delay - but why?

And how are timestamps generated? By E-mail-sofware, by a server?

I suspect the gmail mail server was busy or there were (was?) some internet hiccups before reaching that server.

The timestamps are generated at the server.

- Bruce

[JeremyNicoll]

Originally Posted by somdcomputerguy

The timestamps are generated at the server.

It's interesting that time appears to have gone backwards by 33 seconds on the first hop (between a pair of machines both on the same network). One would expect all the machines on the same network to have their clocks in sync.