I have been seeing a few random problems when sending attachments lately. I have had several people complain that when they send attachments around 2 Megs or more, they are becoming corrupted and cant be opened on the receiving end. I am at my wits end because I have spent literally days looking into the issue with no avail. If someone has run into this issue before and may have some insite, it would be greatly appreciated. thanks
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Large attachments become corrupted
- Thread starter riches85
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Accessdabbler
Technical User
Years ago I had a similar problem. The solution that worked (and I don't know why) was to shorten the name of the file being sent. It was recommended to never send files with names longer than the DOS 8.3 format (so, send files with 11 or fewer characters).
I've sent many files with longer names and had no problems but it wouldn't hurt to rename the file to something shorter and try again.
I've sent many files with longer names and had no problems but it wouldn't hurt to rename the file to something shorter and try again.
Could be a couple things here. First, your SMTP service may be limiting the size of attachments. This could be tested by send a large attachment to yourself and see if it gets there in good shape. If it doesn't, check with your mail admin to get it fixed. Second, the headers in the message are getting mucked up along the route from the sender to the reciever and their mail client has no clue how to decode it. Usually Eudora sends things in MIME format, but you could also try sending in UUENCODE or BINHEX and see if the problem rectifies itself. Also try turning off Quoted Printable Encoding (the QP button at the top of the mail window).
Hope this helps.
Hope this helps.
Interesting. I regularly send 100MB+ attachments (zip files) via Eudora to various places around the world and have had no problems at all. All the previous versions and the most current version (which I recently upgraded to) all work fine. Maybe its something with the configuration on your system??
I was thinking that it was related to McAfee scanning the mail before sending it (don't ask me why, just a gut feeling) but I went to NAV 2004 and am having the same issue.
At this point, I am really stumped. It really does irritate me because Eudora is by far my favorite e-mail client and I hate to stop using it over this.
At this point, I am really stumped. It really does irritate me because Eudora is by far my favorite e-mail client and I hate to stop using it over this.
1. The attachment arrives safely but it cannot be opened and displayed by the recipient's computer.
If you click on the link or icon within an email message that points to the attachment and instead of getting a display of the document you get a dialog box asking what to do next, it may be that your email software can't identify an application program on your computer capable of reading the file. For example if you send someone a MS Word document and that person has MS Word loaded on their machine, the chances are good that the file can be opened automatically by clicking the link. But if the recipient is not a MS Word user, the email program may not know what to do with the file. (There's a lesson here: don't send people files unless you're sure they can read them on their PCs). If your email program doesn't think it can hand off an attachment to the appropriate program, it will tell you. You will typically have two choices: First, you can designate a program to open the attachment from the dialog box. Windows users can accomplish this by clicking on My Computer and selecting the menu choices View > Options > File Types. Second, you can save the attachment to a folder of your choice and open it later with another application. Fortunately, most current application software contains format converters that are capable of interpreting non-native formats. MS Word for example can successfully display most WordPerfect documents with most if not all features intact. The bottom line is this: just because your email program can't directly open an attachment doesn't mean it's not readable by anything on your computer.
If you click on the link or icon within an email message that points to the attachment and instead of getting a display of the document you get a dialog box asking what to do next, it may be that your email software can't identify an application program on your computer capable of reading the file. For example if you send someone a MS Word document and that person has MS Word loaded on their machine, the chances are good that the file can be opened automatically by clicking the link. But if the recipient is not a MS Word user, the email program may not know what to do with the file. (There's a lesson here: don't send people files unless you're sure they can read them on their PCs). If your email program doesn't think it can hand off an attachment to the appropriate program, it will tell you. You will typically have two choices: First, you can designate a program to open the attachment from the dialog box. Windows users can accomplish this by clicking on My Computer and selecting the menu choices View > Options > File Types. Second, you can save the attachment to a folder of your choice and open it later with another application. Fortunately, most current application software contains format converters that are capable of interpreting non-native formats. MS Word for example can successfully display most WordPerfect documents with most if not all features intact. The bottom line is this: just because your email program can't directly open an attachment doesn't mean it's not readable by anything on your computer.
2. Your email program may not understand the encoding method.
Attachments work because the attached file, whatever its contents, are encoded in such a way that its contents are preserved. There are several encoding methods currently in use (including MIME, Uuencode, and BinHex), and not every email program can handle them all. If your email program doesn't understand the encoding of an attachment, it may report an error, or it may even attempt to display the encoded data in a regular email window, producing a message that contains nothing but a block of meaningless characters and symbols. You may be able to save and decode such a document with another program, but it's probably easier to contact the sender and work out an alternative solution.
Attachments work because the attached file, whatever its contents, are encoded in such a way that its contents are preserved. There are several encoding methods currently in use (including MIME, Uuencode, and BinHex), and not every email program can handle them all. If your email program doesn't understand the encoding of an attachment, it may report an error, or it may even attempt to display the encoded data in a regular email window, producing a message that contains nothing but a block of meaningless characters and symbols. You may be able to save and decode such a document with another program, but it's probably easier to contact the sender and work out an alternative solution.
3. The attachment may not make it all the way to the recipient's desktop (attention: Pine users).
Client-side email programs such as Netscape and Eudora run on your PC and store incoming attachments on your local hard disk (or in some cases in your personal storage location on a networked drive). Older mainframe-based email programs such as Pine, however, run not on your PC but on the mail server. Even though Pine may appear to be a PC program, you're actually operating it remotely using a terminal emulator (such as Kermit or Windows Telnet). Pine may be able to save incoming attachments, but not only will the program not usually be able to display the file, but it will save it physically on the server, not your desktop. Since most attachments are intended to be used with PC programs, this won't do you much good. Your only option in this case is to use a file transfer program (such as WS_FTP) to move the file down to your desktop -- an additional process that not everybody is willing to go through. The solution to this problem is to switch to a client-side email program. Even if you do not have a personal workstation and read your mail from the public machines in the computer labs, AU's Novell network provides you with all the tools you need to use client-side email.
4. The attachment may not survive the trip because of its size.
Email systems do not handle very large email attachments gracefully, if at all. Some systems will not accept attachments over a certain size, and others may choke on them and freeze up or crash. As a rule of thumb, try to keep attachments to under 50 kilobytes, 100 kilobytes maximum. If you're sending a large number of files, try attaching them to several different email messages instead of bundling them all together.
Sorry about the multiposts and good luck!!
Client-side email programs such as Netscape and Eudora run on your PC and store incoming attachments on your local hard disk (or in some cases in your personal storage location on a networked drive). Older mainframe-based email programs such as Pine, however, run not on your PC but on the mail server. Even though Pine may appear to be a PC program, you're actually operating it remotely using a terminal emulator (such as Kermit or Windows Telnet). Pine may be able to save incoming attachments, but not only will the program not usually be able to display the file, but it will save it physically on the server, not your desktop. Since most attachments are intended to be used with PC programs, this won't do you much good. Your only option in this case is to use a file transfer program (such as WS_FTP) to move the file down to your desktop -- an additional process that not everybody is willing to go through. The solution to this problem is to switch to a client-side email program. Even if you do not have a personal workstation and read your mail from the public machines in the computer labs, AU's Novell network provides you with all the tools you need to use client-side email.
4. The attachment may not survive the trip because of its size.
Email systems do not handle very large email attachments gracefully, if at all. Some systems will not accept attachments over a certain size, and others may choke on them and freeze up or crash. As a rule of thumb, try to keep attachments to under 50 kilobytes, 100 kilobytes maximum. If you're sending a large number of files, try attaching them to several different email messages instead of bundling them all together.
Sorry about the multiposts and good luck!!
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