Mac Forum / Applications / Eudora / April 2007

Without further data, all that can be offered are guesses. Here are a few.

One possibility is that their anti-virus is stripping out the attachment
by default. It may just not like whatever header data Eudora puts onto
the attachments. You could ask your friend to set the security one level
lower, and see what happens. Too high a security setting often blocks
perfectly safe stuff.

Would this mean that your attachments include viruses? Possible, but
unlikely. Do you have AV software that checks outgoing mail as well as
incoming files? If not, it's worth getting. Even Macs can be turned into
zombies.

Note too that there are two methods of attaching files: "in-line" and
"external." Generally speaking, external attachments are more likely to
get through, because of the way that different e-mail clients handle
in-line attachments.

You could also ask your friends what version of Windows they are using.
Windows 200/XP/Vista should have no problems with attachments. Older
versions (95/98/ME) often do.

Do you receive the attachment yourself,
when you include any email address(es) of your own
in "Bcc:"?

Gmail is quite good at sniffing for unusual content,
and also allows you to see the original complete message
in uninterpreted format, which can be useful
to find out with complete clarity and certainty
what is actually being sent, and whether
any attachments are actually present.

Similarly, you can send or forward mail (with attachments)
using Gmail, to compare whether your local computer or ISP
could possibly have anything to do with the issue.

BTW, how large is the attachment?
(limitations exist along some delivery paths)

What sort of file name does it have?
(Windows tends to think that file names
relate to content types; certain names
might also not be acceptable).

What sort of encoding is being used
when sending attachments?

Perhaps it is a security warning that tells them
that they must click on something or change a setting
to be able to receive certain attachments at all.

Ignoring the "yellow security bar" is like Bob Newhart's
classic "Driving Instructor" routine:

 The light blinded you?
 The red light blinded you?
 The flashing red light blinded you?
 Oh, the flashing red light on the car you hit blinded you!

http://www.wepsite.de/driving_instructor.htm

 "She couldn't see the yellow line that low on the ground, Officer" :)

-[ ]-

Send them these links:

http://www.comentum.com/stop-viruses.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291387
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329570

-[ ]-

Check if they are not using Microsoft Outlook (not Express).
There is a well-known bug in Outlook 2002 which is part of Office XP:

http://eudora.com/techsupport/kb/2453hq.html
http://filer.case.edu/~wrv/eudoraoutlookfix.html

Note that though these pages are for Mac Eudora users, the problem is
neither Mac specific *or* Eudora specific. It's a bug in Outlook 2002 .

Thanks for all the suggestions.

To respond to some of them:

It could be antivirus, but I would have expected there to be an indication
that something had been removed. Other people using the same antivirus seem to
receive the attachments.

The attachments were PDF files I created on my own Mac. I cannot imagine how
they would get viruses.

They are external attachments.

They are both using Windows XP.

I haven't tried it, but other people using Windows XP are receiving the
attachments.

About 100KB.

Possible. I'll have to check. At least one is patched up to the latest
versions using Windows Update, so if the problem has ever been fixed, that
should have fixed it.

The other one is using Outlook Express, so at least Outlook is not the problem
in that case.

I have been using AppleDouble for 10 years or more.

Thanks again for the hints.

David