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Very strange problem in Outlook Express 2

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Bocaire

Bocaire

Technical User
Oct 16, 2005
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Every so often, I experience some strange happenings in Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180

I normally work in Rich Text(HTML) mode, and I use some background stationery, and an MS font "Comic Sans MS".

I always send and reply in HTML.

Once in a very great while, I'll get a message from someone which shows up in "Plain Text" mode, and the message is loaded with lots of what looks like HTML codes, and is a real mess. But this is very rare.

About 6 months ago, one of my friends advised me that he was getting all the mail I sent him, in that "messed up" mode. But all his other e-mails were coming in fine. I checked over my system, and sent several test message to myself and others, but they all were fine. Suddenly after a few weeks of this, everything returned to normal at his end - my end was normal for receiving and sending, all through this. And things have stayed normal since then.

I didn't make any changes to my system or settings during all this period, as I couldn't find anything wrong anywhere.

Today, a different one of my very computer savvy friends reported the same situation. My HTML messages to him were coming through in plain text, and had the tons of HTML garbage coding visible in the text. He also always works in HTML mode.

He clicked on "reply", and the window that came up was in plain text. When he tried to switch to HTML mode, it refused to do so.

So I went to another one of my machines, generated a similar HTML message, with a jpg image in it, and sent it to him, and a copy to myself. This time, his copy and my copy both arrived fine - HTML all the way.

I'm at a loss to understand what is happening, and what the fix might be. Right now, his machine is the only machine I've sent to which shows this problem. But when I sent to him from a different machine - all was well. So obviously, there must be some setting on my main machine that's related to the problem - but it isn't a problem for anyone else I send to.

Does anyone have any ideas -

Bocaire

 
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Hi Linney,

I'm using MS's auto updates for my system. And I assume that among all the updates I continue to get that those for OE are in there. that's why I noted my version # for OE which is 6.00.2900.2180.

I'm not using XP for my security stuff. I use AVG, Zone Alarm, Spyware Doctor, and Ad-Aware, plus software like WinPatrol, and various spyware scanners like Spybot, and Spyware Blaster.

Bocaire
 
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It may help to see what the text is that he recieved, i.e. the garbled html. If you can post it put it in [ code ] [/ code] tags (Remove the spaces from the tags.

Could it be AVG or Zone Alarm that are causing the problem? Both can add signatures to emails to show that they have been scanned and maybe they are having an effect on the html.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.
 
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Greg,

I copied a bunch of the stuff - see below. I see that Spyware Doctor is also checking e-mail. This may be overkill, and part of the problem. But this one recipient is the only one having this problem.

I'm enclosing just a part of the mess, as the whole thing is probably too long to be posted here.

Remember, he also advised me that when he went to reply, my message, which was sent in HTML displayed as plain text, and he could not switch it to HTML

Bocaire

E-mail message checked by PC Tools Spyware Doctor (5.0.0.172)
Database version: 5.06940

------=_NextPart_001_001E_01C76F6B.B378A300
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Disposition:

<=21DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC =22-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN=22>
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D=22text/html; =
charset=3Diso-8859-1=22>
<META content=3D=22MSHTML 6.00.6000.16414=22 name=3DGENERATOR>
<STYLE>BODY =7B
=09MARGIN-TOP: 0px
=7D
UL =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
OL =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
DIR =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
MENU =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
DIV =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
DT =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
DD =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
ADDRESS =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
BLOCKQUOTE =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
PRE =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
BR =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
P =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
LI =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
H1 =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: maroon; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
H2 =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 18pt; COLOR: purple; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
H3 =7B
=09FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: =22Comic Sans MS=22, =
=22Arial=22
=7D
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY background=3Dcid:001c01c76f8d=243a87d200=24640a0a0a=40ronaldbocaire>
<DIV><FONT face=3D=22Comic Sans MS=22 size=3D4>Hi Bill,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3D=22Comic Sans MS=22 size=3D4></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3D=22Comic Sans MS=22 size=3D4>I can't imagine what =
happened with the=20
message in question. I just looked at what I sent you, and it looked fine =
at=20
this end. The message you sent me just now didn't show anything abnormal, =
nor=20
did it have&nbsp;any attachments. There were not pix or anything else. It =
was=20
plain text.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3D=22Comic Sans MS=22 size=3D4></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3D=22Comic Sans MS=22 size=3D4>The only thing I can think =
of is that I=20
send stuff in html, and you use plain text.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3D=22Comic Sans MS=22 size=3D4></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3D=22Comic Sans MS=22 size=3D4>My Internet connection was =
down=20
 
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I'm not surprised that your friend cannot change to html mode when the code is such a mess.

I can tell for sure what application it is that is causing the problem but it is to do with the conversion of " to ascii code that seems to be the problem. Where you can see =22 in the code, it should be %22 & =3D should be %3D

It could be outlook express but I would suspect it is more likely to be either one of your scanning applications or possibly one of the servers that the email passes through on the route to your friends PC.

I've just done a test here and the extra text that AVG adds breaks the validity of the HTML.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.
 
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Hi Greg,

Thanks for your reply. Until I find out what's going on, I'll just send to him in plain text.

I've sent off a new HTML message to him, with Spyware Doctor's outbound scan turned off. And I'll see if this makes any difference.

There is a remote possiblility of the servers involved. Comcast, who purchased Adelphia, was converting over to their servers this past week, just around the time the problem started. I learned of this when my service was down for part of the day, when the conversion was in process.

Thanks again -

Bocaire
 
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I think that Greg's diagnosis, or even the Server problems, are better options to follow in order to solve your problem.

However I should point out that by relying on Automatic Updates, I believe you will only get the Security Updates and not any Recommended Updates, one of which is the link I originally posted.

This is copied from the Windows Catalog site.....


"Recommended Updates (32)

Cumulative Update for Outlook Express for Windows XP (KB887797)

Cumulative Update for Outlook Express for Windows XP (KB887797) - (Posted Date: July 26, 2005)
Download size: 1.4 MB
This non-security update helps resolve various issues found in Outlook Express. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. Read More..."

How to download Windows updates and drivers from the Windows Update Catalog


It is also easy enough to check your Windows Updates logs, or Add or Remove Programs, or update history, to see if you have the update for Outlook Express.
 
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I noticed that both Spyware Doctor and AVG were doing email scanning on my outgoing email. I certainly don't need 2 programs doing that, as stuff that I send out should be very clean & safe. So I disabled SD's outbound scanning, and sent off an HTML to my friend. This time it went through just fine.

The "problems" started about a week or so ago, when I installed an updated version of SD. So that's when it probably changed its default activities, and I didn't notice the changes.

So, for now, things seem back to normal. Would not the version number I noted for OE of 6.00.2900.2180 indicate whether or not it is updated to the current performance. I assume that every time there is an update, that this number changes.

And, I don't believe that my XP Pro auto updates are limited just to security, at least not according to Microsoft.

Bocaire

 
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Are Automatic Updates the same updates as those that are available from the Windows Update Web site?

Yes. However, Automatic Updates delivers only the latest important updates that can help protect your computer against viruses and other security threats. These updates can include security updates, critical updates and service packs and should be installed as soon as they are released. You can download and install other types of updates, such as upgrades and tools that help improve the performance of your computer, by visiting the Windows Update Web site ( on a regular basis.


Windows Vista Team Blog : Windows Update ( Jim Allchin)

"First, while Automatic Updates in Windows XP SP2 did a great job of getting critical security fixes onto your PC, there really was no way for you to automatically keep your PC up-to-date with the non-critical updates that are important to keep your PC current."

 
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Linney,

I went to the MS site, and had MS check my install of XP Pro.

Both the "Security", and "high priority" updates were searched, and I was advised that I have them all.

I did see at some updates that I'll call oddball or very special, that I would have no interest in. So, I'm satisfied that I have all the updates I should have.

I learned many years ago that when an update (for any program) is available, and I'm having no problems, that I consider carefully whether I really want the update.

There were many times that I installed that latest update of a program, and after a variety of problems, I had to go back to the prior version (not MS stuff).

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. :)

Thanks for all your help -

Bocaire
 
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