outlook express attachments

Dear all

During the last few months (after the installation of Service Pack 2
for Windos XP Pro), I have been experiencing a sporadic but annoying
problem affecting the attachments of some messages that I pop from a
mail server using Outlook Express.

The problem consists in the following two facts:
1. The attachment file name is different from the original and the
extension is appended a host of meaningless characters.
2. The size is reported as 0 bytes and the file cannot be saved to the
disk.
Actually, when I tried to save such a file, I ended up by saving to the
disk a zero-byte file with a weird name, which I could only remove by
formatting the whole disk partition (after two weeks of other
unsuccessful attempts to delete it).

However, in all cases experienced, I could download the attachment
using an IMAP connection (in Outlook Express) to the same mail server.

Comparing the message sources of the POP broken version and the IMAP
version, I noticed that the POP source had some missing characters as
reported in the following example:

****** [EXCERPT FROM THE IMAP SOURCE] ******
Content-Type: application/msword; name= "MANET2004.doc"
x-mac-type="42494E41"; x-mac-creator="4D535744"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: x-uuencode
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename= "MANET2004.doc"


begin 600 M ANET2004.doc
MT,\1X*&Q&N$`````````````````````/@`#`/[_"0`&```````````````!
M````+@``````````$```,`````$```#^____`````"T```#__ ___________
M_________________________________________________ ___________
M_________________________________________________ ___________
M_________________________________________________ ___________
M_________________________________________________ ___________
M_________________________________________________ ___________
M_________________________________________________ ___________
M_________________________________________________ ___________
M_________________________________________________ ___________
M_________________________________________________ ___________
M_______________________LI<$`6T`)!```\!*_````````$ ```````!@``
M>A$```X`8FIB:C0#-`,````````````````````````)!!8`61@``%9I`0!6
M:0$`>@D```````````````````````````````````````#__ P\`````````
****** [END OF EXCERPT] ******

****** [EXCERPT FROM THE POP SOURCE] ******
Content-Type: application/msword; name= "MANET2004.doc"I`0!6
M:0$`>@D```````````````````````````````````````#__ P\`````````
****** [END OF EXCERPT] ******

It looks like a number of characters have been "eaten" by the message
popping.

If I copy the message from the IMAP folder to the Inbox of Outlook
Express everything gets fixed and I get a readable attachment.

I hope I made it clear and did not omit essential details.
I haven't seen yet any other post reporting similar problems.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

WinUser

WinUser wrote:
> Dear all
>
> During the last few months (after the installation of Service Pack 2
> for Windos XP Pro), I have been experiencing a sporadic but annoying
> problem affecting the attachments of some messages that I pop from a
> mail server using Outlook Express.
>
> The problem consists in the following two facts:
> 1. The attachment file name is different from the original and the
> extension is appended a host of meaningless characters.
> 2. The size is reported as 0 bytes and the file cannot be saved to the
> disk.
> Actually, when I tried to save such a file, I ended up by saving to
> the disk a zero-byte file with a weird name, which I could only
> remove by formatting the whole disk partition (after two weeks of
> other unsuccessful attempts to delete it).
>
> However, in all cases experienced, I could download the attachment
> using an IMAP connection (in Outlook Express) to the same mail server.
>
> Comparing the message sources of the POP broken version and the IMAP
> version, I noticed that the POP source had some missing characters as
> reported in the following example:
>
> ****** [EXCERPT FROM THE IMAP SOURCE] ******
> Content-Type: application/msword; name= "MANET2004.doc"
> x-mac-type="42494E41"; x-mac-creator="4D535744"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: x-uuencode
> Content-Disposition: attachment; filename= "MANET2004.doc"

Not a Windows Update issue - you'll probably get more help in
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlooke xpress. Also look at
www.insideoe.com. Please don't post attachments in NG posts.