Attached .pdf end up as embedded garbage in email body

[mpropst]

We use an easymail activex object with Visual Foxpro 9 to send out
emails to our dealers. These emails contain an attached pdf file.
Recently we have had some dealers call having difficulty with our
emails because the attachments are not there and seem to have become
part of the email body in endless strings of garbage. I have search
for several hours on a solution for this and have had no success. One
thing we do know is when a particular dealers views the email through
there webmail it is fine it is just when it is popped down into
Microsoft Outlook that this problem seems to occur. Here is a sample
of what we are experiencing. ( i have replaced personel information
with x's)


From: (e-mail address removed) [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 12:00 PM
Subject: CONFIRMING COPY

Return-path: <[email protected]>
Envelope-to: (e-mail address removed)
Received: from atmail by sam.kota.net with spam-scanned (Exim 4.51)
id 1F9Qzv-0004Zs-Vh
for (e-mail address removed); Wed, 15 Feb 2006 12:03:28 -0600
Received: from 208-191-35-226.ded.swbell.net ([208.191.35.226]
helo=exchange.xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com)
by sam.kota.net with esmtp (Exim 4.51)
id 1F9Qzv-0004Z1-Jr
for (e-mail address removed); Wed, 15 Feb 2006 12:03:27 -0600
Received: from email ([10.10.10.174]) by exchange.xxxxxxxxxxxx.com with
Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.6713);
Wed, 15 Feb 2006 12:05:51 -0600
Message-ID: <412006231518325187@email>
X-EM-Version: 5, 0, 0, 0
X-EM-Registration: #00B0530110731900BB00
From: (e-mail address removed)

, "Xxxxx Xxxxx Xxxxx, " <[email protected]>,

"Xxxxx Xxxxx Xxxxx, " <[email protected]>, "Xxxxx Xxxxx Xxxxx, "
<[email protected]>
Subject: CONFIRMING COPY
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 12:3:25 -0600
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_01BC2B74.89D1CCC0"
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 15 Feb 2006 18:05:51.0015 (UTC)
FILETIME=[7487F370:01C6325A]
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.3 (2005-04-27) on sam.kota.net
X-Spam-Level: **
X-Spam-Status: No, score=2.6 required=5.0
tests=BAYES_60,DATE_IN_PAST_12_24,
INVALID_DATE,NO_REAL_NAME,SUBJ_ALL_CAPS autolearn=no version=3.0.3

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_000_01BC2B74.89D1CCC0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Please find your confirming copies attached as a PDF file. Please load
Adobe Acrobat from your our CD if you do not already have Acrobat
installed. (4325 Xxxxx Xxxxx)


------=_NextPart_000_01BC2B74.89D1CCC0
Content-Type: application/pdf; name="confirm.pdf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Description: confirm.pdf
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="confirm.pdf"

JVBERi0xLjIKJcfsj6IKNSAwIG9iago8PC9MZW5ndGggNiAwIFIvRmlsdGVyIC9GbGF0ZURlY29k
ZT4+CnN0cmVhbQp4nF2R0W+bMBDG3/1XfOpLUylloVGWdW+UuC1aAx1Y2l49uAQ2sCm4jfrf
ZT4+CnN0cmVhbQp4nF2R0W+7wyZ
JlUWsnx333e/O16wCkKs/DnfZSdWeODvKF5EOGVwvsoOd0p8yrcIb6AOYhaECNfbINxusF1/Dr7c
bqA6sYiUkqlKshQ7GT3JvPh6pX6L6zDcBDe4Xq+gKrG4t21.... (this goes on for
about 15 pages)

Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated. In one scenario
we even have 2 people in the same office that receive this email and
for one it comes in normal with the pdf attached and the other gets the
garbage above.
Thanks

 

[Brian Tillman]

Here is a sample
of what we are experiencing. ( i have replaced personel information
with x's)

I don't see anything wrong with the message. The MIME headers look OK.
What bothers me is you see them at all. If they're correctly formed, they
should be hidden from the viewer. Something is getting in the way of the
reipient's client and confusing it about what's in your message.

Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated. In one scenario
we even have 2 people in the same office that receive this email and
for one it comes in normal with the pdf attached and the other gets
the garbage above.

The "garbage" is what ALL attachments look like because, you see, there
really is no such thing as an attachment. Yor mail client is faking you out
by converting your binary file to ASCII text since mail really can't deal
with binary data. The data is converted and then embedded in the body of
the mail. However, the receiving client also knows about the encoding and
disassembles the incoming data into its various parts, constructing a copy
of the file you attached when the receiver opens the message. That is, if
everything goes as planned. The only thing I can really see that may be
affecting things is this:

X-Spam-Status: No, score=2.6 required=5.0
tests=BAYES_60,DATE_IN_PAST_12_24,
INVALID_DATE,NO_REAL_NAME,SUBJ_ALL_CAPS autolearn=no version=3.0.3

If those are truly wrapped that way, it could be confusing the receiving
mail client. If, however, the wrapping is an artifact of your posting, then
I can't see why this would be happening to you.

 

[mpropst]

Thanks for the information so far Brian, and yes I did know that the
attachments are converted, it is most peoples response thou that it is
all garbage. The section that you have in question:

X-Spam-Status: No, score=2.6 required=5.0
tests=BAYES_60,DATE_IN_PAST_12_24,
INVALID_DATE,NO_REAL_NAME,SUBJ_ALL_CAPS autolearn=no version=3.0.3

I simply copied and pasted this out of the body of the email message,
the posting had no effect on them. All of the text I posted is exactly
how it shows up in the body of the email. This is not copied from the
header information it is being placed in the email body. I am a novice
with working with the our Exchange Server is this a setting I can
change on it. Again the most frustating part of this all is out of
maybe 100 emails sent we will only hear back from 1-2 people that are
having this issue.
Thanks Again
Michael

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks for the information so far Brian, and yes I did know that the
attachments are converted, it is most peoples response thou that it is
all garbage.

Well, I had no way to tell that the words were theirs and not yours because
you made no such distinction. I wasn't trying to impugne your abilities.

I am a novice with working with the our Exchange Server is this a
setting I can change on it. Again the most frustating part of this
all is out of maybe 100 emails sent we will only hear back from 1-2
people that are having this issue.

If others are receiving the messages with no trouble and they are the same
messages, then that's fairly conclusive proof that your general process is
correct and that it's not a systemic problem. It also leads me to believe
that it's a problem outside of your control, happening somewhere between
your mail server and their client. But one other question: is there
consistency in who sees the messages incorrectly (i.e., no one but these
people have trouble) and in how those who see it amiss see it (i.e., do they
always see it malformed or do they sometimes see it correctly)?

 

[mpropst]

Well I made some calls to those that have been reporting this problem.
There is a consistancy in those that receive it all garbled up. I am
listing some of the specific cases these cases involve 3 different
reports that are generate programmically. I will call them A Report, B
Report, and C Report

1) In this case it is one of our dealer rep's, what the challenge is
with his case is that he received about 20 program generated emails a
day, all but one comes through fine, and the one that is received
incorrectly is the same one every day A Report.
2) In this case there are two people in the same office recieving the
same email, as a matter of fact it is not seperate emails to both but
one email with multiple addresses. They are both popping from the same
mail server and both using Outlook, and one's email comes in fine and
the other's is always incorrect. This happend on all sent reports A
Report, B Report and C Report.
3) In the next case we have 2 dealers that only C Report is arriving
incorrect.
4) Last case when this person checks the email from a web base webmail
program the email is fine and the attachement is able to be downloaded
and opened normally in Adobe Acrobat Reader. But when the same email is
pulled down into Outlook it appears incorrect.

It is consistantly happening to the same people always with the same
reports from what has been reported to me those selected reports to the
same people are coming in malformed 100% of the time. The only thing
they all have in common is that they are all using Microsoft Outlook to
pull down their emails. Another bit of information is that this
problem just seemed to start occuring about a month ago, prior to that
there was no reports of this issue. As far as a percentage goes there
are somedays we send out 500-600 emails with a reported receive error
of only the 5 I have discussed above.

Anymore help or insight into this issue would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Brian Tillman]

1) In this case it is one of our dealer rep's, what the challenge is
with his case is that he received about 20 program generated emails a
day, all but one comes through fine, and the one that is received
incorrectly is the same one every day A Report.

No clear indication here. Is Report A the only one you send to this person?

2) In this case there are two people in the same office recieving the
same email, as a matter of fact it is not seperate emails to both but
one email with multiple addresses. They are both popping from the
same mail server and both using Outlook, and one's email comes in
fine and the other's is always incorrect. This happend on all sent
reports A Report, B Report and C Report.

This seems to indicate that the second person has the problem, not you as
the sender. If it were your problem, both people would see the same
erroneous message.

3) In the next case we have 2 dealers that only C Report is arriving
incorrect.

Is this the only recipient on the send? If so, it could be your problem,
but it could also be his. Does this person also receive Reports A and B?

4) Last case when this person checks the email from a web base webmail
program the email is fine and the attachement is able to be downloaded
and opened normally in Adobe Acrobat Reader. But when the same email
is pulled down into Outlook it appears incorrect.

These also seems to indicate that the problem is on the receiving end and
there's nothing you as the sender can do about it.

It is consistantly happening to the same people always with the same
reports from what has been reported to me those selected reports to
the same people are coming in malformed 100% of the time. The only
thing they all have in common is that they are all using Microsoft
Outlook to pull down their emails. Another bit of information is
that this problem just seemed to start occuring about a month ago,
prior to that there was no reports of this issue.

While I have no way to confirm it, this last sentence may indicate that the
people having the trouble installed some kind of update on their machines
that is interfering with reception. The fact that the problem started
happening for all at around the same time suggests an autoupdate of some
application.

Nonetheless, if you are including multiple recipients for each report, all
recipients are using Outlook, and some recipients never have trouble, that's
is conclusive proof that it is not a sender-induced problem, as far as I'm
concerned. If it were a sender problem, everyone would be having trouble,
not just some. If this were happening to me, I'd try to find an issue on
the recipient systems. For those obtaining the messages via POP, for
example, I'd recommend trying another POP client, like Outlook Express or
Eudora to see if they also had the problem. If not, then the problem must
be in Outlook on their systems. If so, then the problem would have to be
occurring between your site and their client. Narrowing it down to the
various steps along the way is all I can suggest.

 

[MichaelP]

I am still having this problem with just a few dealers, and it is
repetitive for just those dealers, it is apparent that the mail that we
are sending is ok since on average only a few show up improperaly out
of on average over 600 that are sent. does anyone have any other ideas
on possible changes that may be able to be made on the receivers end to
solve this problem since it is the same people having the identical
problems over and over. the only consistancy I can find is that
everyone having problems are using Microsoft Outlook, the problem does
not seem to be version specific since dealers versions range from
Outlook 2000 to Outlook 2003. I had read one posting that stated that
some mail servers may re-encode a message that has already been encoded
so in a sense the message has been encoded twice but then it is only
decoded once by Outlook, does anyone have anymore information on this
possiblity, I am at a loss for any solution on this issue, and although
I do realize it is a problem on the receivers end, it becomes a problem
for us if the receiver is unable to read our emails about their
business account information. anymore ideas or help on this issue
would be greatly appreciated.