TNEF winmail.dat external domain

[dndoorlag]

We are in the current environment:
Exchange 2003 SP2 (fully patched)
Outlook 2003 SP2 fully patched

We are experiencing a problem when receiving email from another "subsidiary"
of our company which is on an entirely differant email system/domain.
We receive the message from the external domain however the attachment does
not appear to the Outlook 2003 cient.
The message shows as PLAIN TEXT, however when I check the Internet headers I
see Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
and a content type of application/ms-tnef: name="winmail.dat"

When looking at the message in the Exchange message tracking logs I see the
message size showing size of 295K, however in the Outlook client inbox the
message show a size of 5K, so in some ways it appears the message/attachment
are being delivered, however it appears the Outlook client cannot see the
attachment.
I'm guessing some type of malformed MIME header, but could use some help to
diagnose and troubleshoot this issue?
THANKS in advance

 

[VanguardLH]

We are in the current environment:
Exchange 2003 SP2 (fully patched)
Outlook 2003 SP2 fully patched

We are experiencing a problem when receiving email from another
"subsidiary"
of our company which is on an entirely differant email
system/domain.
We receive the message from the external domain however the
attachment does
not appear to the Outlook 2003 cient.
The message shows as PLAIN TEXT, however when I check the Internet
headers I
see Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
and a content type of application/ms-tnef: name="winmail.dat"

When looking at the message in the Exchange message tracking logs I
see the
message size showing size of 295K, however in the Outlook client
inbox the
message show a size of 5K, so in some ways it appears the
message/attachment
are being delivered, however it appears the Outlook client cannot
see the
attachment.
I'm guessing some type of malformed MIME header, but could use some
help to
diagnose and troubleshoot this issue?
THANKS in advance

What happens when you do NOT use Rich-Text Format (RTF) and instead
send e-mails in plain-text or HTML format? Sounds like you have
something interrogating your e-mail traffic that doesn't know how to
handle RTF e-mails.

 

[dndoorlag]

The message ARE NOT being sent in RTF format (according to the sender). I'm
looking for reason why the message would/could be encapsulated improperly, or
if there is a way to track how the message format is being modified as it
passes through the various email gateways?

 

[Brian Tillman]

We are in the current environment:
Exchange 2003 SP2 (fully patched)
Outlook 2003 SP2 fully patched

We are experiencing a problem when receiving email from another
"subsidiary" of our company which is on an entirely differant email
system/domain.
We receive the message from the external domain however the
attachment does not appear to the Outlook 2003 cient.
The message shows as PLAIN TEXT, however when I check the Internet
headers I see Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
and a content type of application/ms-tnef: name="winmail.dat"

First, if you used a contact to address the message, open the contact record
and double-click the e-mail address. There should be an "Internet format"
drop-down at the bottom of the dialogue. It should say, "Let Outlook decide
the best sending format". If it says "Use Outlook RIch Text format", that's
the problem. The drop-down overrides any format you've configured in
Outlook unless you have the "Let Outlook decide" value chosen.

If that's not the issue, then it could be Exchange. Exchange is often
configured to encapsulate the message no matter what you've chosen. For
example, the Exchange server mu company uses uses quoted-printable MIME
encoding no matter how I configure Outlook. I can't send a non-MIME
message, period (as much as I'd like to send plain text).

 

[dndoorlag]

Thanks Brian. Couple of things:
- The sending environment is NOT exchange, and we've tried to ensure the
senderis NOT sending in RTF format (and they indicate they are not), but the
fact I see the TNEF/Winmail.dat in the MIME headers makes me think it's still
being sent in RTF format anyways
- The receiving domain is Exchange 2003 and I'm trying to understand why I
can't render the winmail.dat file properly. Its almost as if this file is
"stripped" from the Outlook client perspective as I see the message size in
the logs (larger) and Outlook client. Why can't Exchange 2003 render the RTF
winmail.dat file properly? Or does it get stripped by Exchange for some
reason?

THANKS Again.

 

[VanguardLH]

in message

The message ARE NOT being sent in RTF format (according to the
sender). I'm
looking for reason why the message would/could be encapsulated
improperly, or
if there is a way to track how the message format is being modified
as it
passes through the various email gateways?

The only time there is a winmail.dat attachment is when a receiving
e-mail client does not understand RTF format.

http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?&query=winmail.dat
http://www.fileinfo.net/help/winmail-dat-files.html

Don't believe what the sender claims. Users lie. Users forget.
Users don't know. Have the problematic sender send you a test e-mail.

 

[dndoorlag]

Since I'm using an Outlook client (with an Exchange server) WHY can't my
Outlook client understand the winmail.dat (TNEF) format?
I'm guesssing it's because the email has transfered between a smart host
over the Internet (ie. is not staying within a Exchange 2k/2k3 environment)?

So I guess the question has become why woudn't an Outlook client be able to
"understand" as you say the email RTF/TNEF message format?

 

[VanguardLH]

Since I'm using an Outlook client (with an Exchange server) WHY
can't my
Outlook client understand the winmail.dat (TNEF) format?
I'm guesssing it's because the email has transfered between a smart
host
over the Internet (ie. is not staying within a Exchange 2k/2k3
environment)?

So I guess the question has become why woudn't an Outlook client be
able to
"understand" as you say the email RTF/TNEF message format?

Possibly the e-mail is getting corrupted. I don't receive RTF e-mails
or send them. If you look at the MIME part containing the winmail.dat
by looking at the raw source of the e-mail, is it a complete MIME
part? Is the trailing/closing MIME delimiter line there? If not, the
e-mail is getting truncated.

Is an anti-virus program doing scanning on outbound e-mails? If so,
does it add some promo garbage at the end of outbound e-mails saying
that they passed a virus scan by that anti-virus program?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks Brian. Couple of things:
- The sending environment is NOT exchange, and we've tried to ensure
the senderis NOT sending in RTF format (and they indicate they are
not), but the fact I see the TNEF/Winmail.dat in the MIME headers
makes me think it's still being sent in RTF format anyways

I misread some of what you typed originally about receiving the winmail.dat
file. Outlook should always decode incoming TNEF properly. What you say
suggests something between the sender and you is corrupting the MIME
headers. You'll have to work with your sender to see if you can determine
if the raw message data (headers and all) is being corrupted in some way,
either on the sender's end or on your end.

SInce you are using Exchange, can you see the data properly using Outlook
Web Access?