Internet Mail Message Delivered as Attached Text File

• Microsoft Internet Mail and News version 1.0 for Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

When you receive an e-mail message sent from Microsoft Internet Mail, it may contain an attached file with an .att or .txt extension. In some cases, a plain text version of the message may also be included.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs when any of the following conditions exist:

• You are using Microsoft Exchange with the Internet Mail information service.
• You are using the client for Microsoft Exchange Server.
• Your Internet service provider's mail server does not recognize the content type of the Internet Mail message.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, send your mail using plain text format. To do this on a per-message basis, follow these steps:

1. While you are composing a new message, click Plain Text on the Format menu.

2. Click OK if you receive a message stating that you will lose the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) information in the message you are composing. This message is displayed if you were previously using HTML format instead of plain text format.

MORE INFORMATION

This problem typically occurs when you send mail using Internet Mail's HTML format. Many mail servers do not recognize the Multipart/Alternative Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) content type. When you use HTML format, Internet Mail sends the message as this type.

There are two parts to an Internet Mail message: a text/plain part and a text/HTML part. Multipart/Alternative content type includes multiple representations of the same data.

When the server or client you use to read mail receives this MIME type, the results may vary. Some clients display the text/plain part correctly and put the text/HTML part into an attachment. Others put the entire message into an attachment. The name of the attachment depends on your server and client combination.