Please be advised that it can be very difficult to track some who has sent an offensive enquiry, or left a guestbook entry on your site. You may be able to trace what computer left the message by means of an 'IP address'. While any computer that connects to the Internet has an IP address, this can change frequently or have more than one. Even if a computer only has one IP that does not change, there could be multiple people using that computer.

There is also a field on the enquiry form for the user to enter an e-mail address, however this can be left blank or a false e-mail address can be entered. The best solution for attempting to trace an entry we can offer is as follows.

Login to the site and edit the enquiry or guestbook entry that you wish trace. There will be an IP address which is where the entry was submitted from e.g. 82.41.9.153. Highlight the IP address and hold down CTRL + C to copy the address to the clipboard. Now go to www.dnsstuff.com. Once you have loaded the home page, scroll down about 3/4 of the way down the page until you can see the three columns of boxes. In the centre column you want the third box from the top - the 'IPWHOIS Lookup' field. Enter the IP address in this box (use CTRL + V to paste) then and press the 'WHOIS' field. On the screen that follows this will tell you the ISP of the user e.g. Telewest or NTL etc. If the school has its own computer network then please be aware of its IP address so that you know if the message has come from a computer within the school itself. Once you know what the ISP of the person is, you can visit the ISP's main website and find their abuse email address which you can file a abusive email complaint with.

Please bear in mind however that is unfortunately usually more trouble than it's worth, requiring the co-operation of the users Internet Service Provider (ISP) who should be able to provide specific details of the users or their location. However Data Protection laws will normally require an official request from the police/courts before private user information can be released. This general problem is an issue that can be experienced by all users of the Internet regardless of the software used. If the IP address returned is one in use by the school however, this may help you track down the computer used, and if possible, the person using it at the time.

Please note that if you use the DNS Stuff service, Recipero take no responsibility for the accuracy of information provided by third parties.