• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, Dr. Bombay Computer Column: Miss Hathaway, Come in and Take an E-Mail, Please

Posted on: Thursday, 20 April 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Dr. Emilio Bombay, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Apr. 20--Miss Hathaway, come in and take an e-mail, please

Dear Dr. Bombay: Certain parties that I send Word and PDF attachments to via Outlook cannot receive them because their mail programs, typically Outlook Express or Eudora, replace the attachment with a file called "Winmail.dat." My secretary, however, can send the same attachment to the same parties without any problem. I've tried changing the format of my outgoing e-mails from plain text to HTML and vice versa. Is there a remedy for this problem, or is it just me?

-- Dat's All, Folks

Dear Dat's All: No, it's you. It's been your fault all along. I'm surprised that a person of your limited technical ability has been able to rise to a position where you have a secretary to do you bidding and pick up your dry cleaning. At least he or she knows how to use an e-mail program.

Just kidding. I wanted to see how desperate you were for an answer before I took the time to explain this, because it's a pretty boring topic. But, then, being boring has never stopped me before.

I'll just bet you're using Outlook as a mail client on a Microsoft Exchange e-mail server. When you send an e-mail, one with special fonts and lots of pretty colors, Outlook converts that into the Transport-Neutral Encapsulation Format file named -- you guessed it -- Winmail.dat. On the receiving end, a copy of Outlook can convert it back into formatting.

Binary attachments, such as Word documents, graphics and PDFs -- anything that's not plain text -- can be turned into encoded, plain-text files by a process called Uuencoding, a scheme that's been around for as long as lonely guys have been sending each other dirty pictures in e-mail or posting them in Internet news groups. Of course, the files have to be decoded on the other end. Sometimes they may show up as Winmail.dat as well.

By the way, you can get more info if you use the Outlook help system. Search for Winmail.dat and look for the link named "Control how you send and see mail messages."

If it were me, I'd just let the secretary take care of everything so I could keep my feet up on the desk while lighting my Cuban cigar with a hundred-dollar bill. There are a few things you can try if you get told what to do with your cigar, though.

First of all, if you know your recipients don't have Outlook, make sure you only send message in plain text or HTML, never rich text. Some mail programs can't even interpret HTML code, so even that's dicey. You can change the format on a single e-mail by changing it from the drop-down list on its toolbar. If that seems like too much work, open Outlook's Tools menu, go to Options, then click on the Mail Format tab. You can set the format for all messages there. Try HTML first, then plain text.

Now click on the Internet Format button in the same dialog box. Set Outlook Rich Text Options to "Convert to HTML format." Also check the box next to "Encode attachments in UUENCODE format when sending a plain text message." Rare is an e-mail program that can't handle Uuencode.

There's also a chance your server is to blame. Sometimes they are not properly configured to send mail according to the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions standard. You and your computer-tech minions should both read what Microsoft has to say at support.microsoft.com/?kbid=138053.

If nothing fixes things, your recipients can get a semi-free conversion program called WMDecode at www.biblet.freeserve.co.uk. It has an expiration date and must be downloaded again and again unless you cough up 10 bucks.

Dear Dr. Bombay: Recently, I have been getting a pop-up message in the lower right corner of my screen from Norton Internet Security that says "Rules automatically created for Microsoft Generic Host Process for Win32 service." What's with this, and how do I stop being annoyed with this intrusion?

-- Generically Confused

Dear Confused: I suppose you could turn off Norton's firewall. It's generating those messages to tell you every time your computer sends something to the Internet or receives something that the firewall doesn't know anything about.

The Generic Host Process is a part of Windows XP. It's what allows applications to send and receive information over the Internet. Not only do legit programs use it, but so do trojans and worms and all sorts of nasty stuff. The firewall finds something it doesn't know about and creates a rule, then tells you about it.

Unfortunately, if you tell the firewall to always block the events, it also prevents Microsoft Update, and that's a bad idea. If you tell it to always allow the events, even though they're low-risk, there's an outside chance the trojan or whatever will make it through.

Back up your current firewall rules (oh, go read the help file) and try this: Go to Norton Firewall, then Internet Access Control. See if there's an entry for the Generic Host Process and deep-six it. Now you have to put it back and reconfigure it. Click on Add, and when asked what program to allow, pick Svchost.exe, which is found in the directory System32 folder inside the Windows folder. Choose automatic configuration.

Now create a rule for Svchost.exe by right-clicking the entry, then clicking Add. You want to permit communications to and from other computers and open ports 80 and 443 for this rule. When you name it and save it, move it to the top of your rules list.

If I were you, I'd set my virus checker to do automatic daily scans and to monitor everything that goes on while the computer is on. I'd also download a free copy of Windows Defender from Microsoft so you can block and remove any spyware that tries to phone home.

If nothing fixes the problem, turn off the firewall and get the free version of ZoneAlarm at www.zonelabs.com. I can tell you for a fact it won't pester you half as much as Norton once you get it set up and trained.

Dear Dr. Bombay: I recently purchased an upgrade for Adobe Photoshop to the CS version and installed it, then later bought a new computer. I can't install it on the new computer because I lost my original Photoshop 5 disks (office renovation project). No way to talk to a live person at Adobe. What can I do?

-- Whoops

Dear Whoops: Guess that'll teach you to keep your CDs in a safe place, won't it? Assuming you registered Photoshop 5 when you originally installed it, Adobe should have you in their records. Try calling the Adobe Store at (888) 724-4508 between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. Pacific time, and maybe they can help you.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

NASDAQ-NMS:MSFT, NYSE:GES,

Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas)

More News in this Category