E Mail Attachments Getting Stripped Off

[Parrotman]

Would very much appreciate any advice please.

Have 2 PCs'; one running Outlook Express with AVG and the other running Outlook with Mcafee. Both with XP and with Virgin Cable ( formerly NTHell ). Both are wired network with netgear router.

Any emails that are sent with attachments be them jpg or doc are received with the attachments stripped off.

Emails with attachments are received ok in virgin/nthell webmail.

Did various checks with Virgin helpdesk ( 25p/min ) such as disabling antivirus etc., checking security settings on Outlook and OE only to be told that as far as they are concerned there is nothing wrong!

Suggested I phone PC Helpline ( £1/min) which I did and according to them, if the emails plus attachments are arriving ok in webmail then problem is with my pc(s'). Suggested I download Adaware 2007 which I did though had reservations about it's effectiveness with this problem. All it found was a load of cookies which were removed and problem still existing.

I could perhaps be forgiven for going along with their argument that the problem is my end but why should 2 different PCs' with different email programs etc be affected. Ok, they're both microsoft but still don't get it so far.

Getting back to the Virgin helpdesk again tomorrow to see if they can check their email logs as to whether or not attachments are actually being sent.

Problem only surfaced perhaps during last week or so and have done nothing that would certainly affect both pcs'.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks John

 

[grober]

According to a friend who is on VIRGIN have had problems with their Email servers during the last few days so maybe the problem will correct itself? Don't expect them to admit that of course. Found this on their website couple of days ago.

http://status-cable.virginmedia.com...1E6FE6A043CFD309.jsps304p:28009?ticket=648402

 

[Sp!ke]

Firstly, dont bother ringing anymore expensive phonelines as the support guy at the other end is just googling the problem same as you can. Save your money.

Now the problem is either with Outlook... or you've installed some sort of over zealous security software or patch.

What versions of outlook are you running on each PC? What is your email editor? (in outlook, you can set word to edit emails). What OS are you running?

Have you by chance installed the virgin PC Guard?

How long ago did the problem start?

>grober, I doubt this is the same issue as emails on webmail contain attachments which are stripped out in Outlook.

 

[robert.saunders]

^^^
As Sp!ke says

 

[Parrotman]

Firstly, dont bother ringing anymore expensive phonelines as the support guy at the other end is just googling the problem same as you can. Save ypour money.

Now the problem is either with Outlook... or you've installed some sort of over zealous security software or patch.

What versions of outlook are you running on each PC? What is your email editor? (in outlook, you can set word to edit emails). What OS are you running?

Have you bychance installed the virgin PC Guard?

How long ago did the problem start?

Sp!ke,

One PC has Outlook 2003 with XPsp2 and Mcafee whilst other has OE6 with XP media center and AVG. Email editor is Word.

PC Guard not installed and tend to steer away from such kind of add-ons.

Problem may have started 10/02 when email received with missing attachment and just overlooked it. Received a further email yesterday with attachment missing.

I did download some updates from MS but that was on one PC only.

Done a bit of googling and possibly seems could be a bit of a general problem that has just sprung up which no one will own up to ( wonder why!).

With OE I've unchecked those boxes re do not download attachments etc and done the same with Outlook.

Thanks John

 

[wallingd]

I have dealt with a missing-attachments issue only in the past few days. It turned out to be Outlook 2000 set to compose emails as Rich Text not plain. This did in fact make a difference to the recipient, even though it does not appear to make any sort of logical sense. Check on the Format menu I think it is (not got it here to check) and ensure emails are composed in plain text. You can set the default under Tools > Options > Mail Format on the main Inbox screen.

 

[Sp!ke]

There is a known bug between Office 2003 and Exchange 2007 regarding attachments - Not sure what Virgin use for their mail platform... It does look like they are using some kind of microsoft mail platform. It would be interesting to know if it was indeed Exchange 2007.

If you open the message with missing attachments and click the forward button as if to forward the message. Do the attachments then show up in this forwarded email?

 

[Parrotman]

Could'nt get that far Sp!ke.

I sent 2 emails with an attachment each from a gmail account. Both were received in Outlook but instead of attachments there was a lot of gobbledegook after the message body.

The gobbledegook had the following ' header ' if it means anything apart from the file reference.

------=_Part_3343_26101782.1203290487288
Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="P8070043(2).JPG"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
X-Attachment-Id: f_fcs82i1b0
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="P8070043(2).JPG"

I'll have another go tomorrow at trying to receive an email with no attachment and forwarding it on to see what happens.

Thanks John

 

[WLeg]

Have you tried MIME encoding, as opposed to Base64 ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64

 

[Parrotman]

Did some further ' tests ' this morning.

Emails where attachments stripped off came from outlook/exchange 2007.

Emails where attachments intact cam from outlook/exhange 2003.

Sending emails with attachments from gmail account:

plain text = no attachments only message

rich text = message, no attachments but gobbelydegook.

 

[Sp!ke]

Well there you have it then...

http://knicksmith.blogspot.com/2007/03/exchange-2007-and-outlook-2003-where.html

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930468/

Looks like the exchange 2007 servers haven't been patched with THIS


I wonder what mail servers google use?

 

[Parrotman]

Thanks for all your help Sp!ke. All makes sense.

I happen to have office 2007 ( but preferred 2003 ) and since loading this, attachments are now being received although not from gmail nor hotmail unless they are very small files.

Oddly enough, my wife's pc ( OE6) is now receiving attachments too ( not though gmail or hotmail) but have'nt done anything to it.??

I seem to recall that something similar happened a couple of years back following an ms update that took them about a month to resolve.

Thanks once again for your help and pointing me in the right direction.

Regards John