on Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 10:58:57AM -0700, Ben Hartshorne (ben@hartshorne.net) wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 10:37:17AM -0700, Royce Bell wrote:
> > Uh...is there a reason why several posts to the list (usually from specific
> > individuals), come with attached text files. I'm not in the habit of
> > opening ANY attachment, not even from friends I know well, and this is quite
> > disconcerting.
>
> This may be because of one little line I saw in the headers of your
> message:
> >>> X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
>
> Outlook Express does not understand the multipart/signed mime
> convention, and so instead of realizing that someone is sending a
> compliant pgp signed message, along with the signature (both as
> attachments with a directive to display them inline), it just shows you
> an empty message with two attachments, one text and one something else
> (the signature).
>
> There are a few solutions. Send your customer feedback to M$ that you
> would like an email client that conforms to the standard (I think it's
> RFC 1847).
Not sure of OE's failure to deal with mime specifically, but I'd also
mention the following:
RFC 2015 is the standard for MIME Security with Pretty Good Privacy (PGP).
ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2015.txt
A new standard is proposed, RFC 3156, which addresses some shortcomings
of the former.
ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc3156.txt
> Use Outlook instead of Outlook Express. Use a non-M$ mail client (I'm
> pretty sure Eudora does the Right Thing(tm)).
I'd also advise the following outlook settings:
Fixing quoting problems with Microsoft Outlook
As a large number of people use Microsoft Outlook, ("Outlook is a
security hole that also happens to be an e-mail client", Steven J.
Vaughan-Nichols [1]) despite the many security exploits associated
with the program, to say nothing of its flouting of Internet mail
standards, I've assembled the following directions to achieve a
closer conformance with Internet mail standards. To set linewrap,
quote character, and non-HTML mail preferences:
From the "Tools" menu, chose "Options...".
To set Plain Text as the default format:
Click the "Send" tab. Under "Mail Sending Format", select
"Plain Text".
To wrap lines at 72 characters:
While still on that same tab, click the "Plain Text
Settings" button to bring up the "Plain Text Settings"
dialog. Edit the value of the "Automatically wrap text at __
characters, when sending" field to 72.
To set the prefix character:
While still on the "Plain Text Settings" dialog, ensure that
the "Indent the original text with __ when replying or
forwarding" field is checked, and that "> " is selected in
the drop box. (Both should be so by default.)
Thanks to Dan Martinez for this information.
--------------------
Notes
1. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols "The best way to stop 'ILOVEYOU' is to
stop using Outlook." Sm@rt Reseller.
http://membrane.com/security/secure/Microsoft_Outlook_Express.html
Peace.
--
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