What is this Gray Circle doing on the from line?

[Dawn]

A gray circle (sphere) is now appearing to the left of the From name in
received messages. What ever caused the circle also seems to be blocking or
messing up my "rtf" attachments. When I open a message with an rtf file
attached I see the attachment line but no attachements are visible. I can
right click and save the attachment then open it but I can not open the
attachement from within the message. Other types of attachments come through
fine. I have Outlook 2003 and Windows XP I did not knowingly install any
other program. I ran microsoft anti-spyware and my antivirus with no problems
found.
Does anyone know what this could be?
Thanks so much for your help,

 

[Ivan T. Williams]

....do you have MSN messenger installed? Or do you have messenger plus
installed? If yes, the grey circle means that person is not logged into MSN
Messenger. Go to TOOLS / OPTIONS / OTHER. At the bottom you will see "smart
tag"...

 

[Dawn]

Thanks Ivan, We don't have MSN messanger or plus installed however the smart
tags did remove the gray dot. I'm still having trouble with the file
attachments however, especially as they relate to rtf and sending an rtf
report from MS Access.

 

[Ivan T. Williams]

....check security! TOOLS / OPTIONS / SECURITY - at the bottom of the page,
"change automatic..."