If messages are sent using the Exchange family of mail programs
(includes Windows Messaging or Outlook97/98/2000+) and the option to use
Rich Text Format is selected, it puts the RTF message (and any attached
files) in an attachment called WINMAIL.DAT (application/ms-tnef). But
this attachment is useless to most other mail programs. In some mail
programs (e.g. Outlook Express), the attachment won't even be visible.

The Exchange user can turn off the RTF option for messages to selected
recipients. Note that if sending via an Exchange server, the Exchange
server administrator may be overriding the mail client settings. In
this case, the administrator will need to make changes on the server.
In some cases, the Exchange server actually removes the attachments to
some recipients.

If you receive such an attachment, you may be able to use the
Fentun (TNEF Attachment Extractor) program.
http://www.fentun.com
If the author's site is unavailable, you can get a copy he
http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_san...les/fentun.zip
Another option is the LS-TNEF Java based TNEF Decoder
http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_san...les/lstnef.zip

For additional information, see the MS-TNEF WINMAIL.DAT Attachments
section of
Decoding Internet Attachments - A Tutorial
http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_san...de.htm#ms-tnef


--

Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm


"DG" wrote in message
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"DGuess" wrote in message
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"DG" wrote in message
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"DGuess" wrote in message
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"DG" wrote in message
...
I have Windows XP Media Center 2005 and Outlook Express 6. A
friend, using Windows 2000 Pro and Outlook 2000, has tried to
forward a message to me twice. I haven't been able to see the
attachment either time - even though the message that I receive
shows up as 5341KB in size. He showed me the message he was
forwarding (it is a short video clip) and I noticed that the
attachment was listed in the body of the email so I'm assuming that
has something to do with it. He's sent other video that I've had no
problem with, just this one. Do I have something set at my end
that is preventing me from seeing the attachment? I looked in
Options and tried different security settings but still nothing.
Thanks in advance - any help will be appreciated.



Is the file extension .dat?



No, I think it was .wmv
I will check tomorrow because I told him that if it didn't come
through this time I would have him save the attachment to his hard
drive and then send me a NEW message (instead of forwarding) with
the attachment.


What you received, was the extension .dat?

Is he sending Rich Text Format or Plain Text? OE can't read the Rich
Text Format and some attachments will also come in as a .dat file as
well as the message.

Also, is he using Word as the text editor? If so, have him switch to
Outlook as the text editor and send it plain text.


I couldn't see anything at all in the message body itself except the
header from the message he was forwarding (From, Sent, To, Subject
lines). No attachment was showing up. I looked at the properties of
the message, and under message source it does list an attachment
"winmail.dat" (followed by lines and lines of code). Message source
also shows: Content-Type: text/plain

He showed me the original message he was forwarding to me and the
attachment showed up IN the body of the message so I assumed this was
the problem. Today, we saved the attachment to his HD, then attached
it to a new message, he sent that one to me and I had no problem
seeing that one. So I'm just assuming it had to do with the way the
attachment was attached to the original email he was forwarding to me.