RFC-822 data files????

Sonny Jenkins · Post by **Sonny Jenkins** » 18 Mar 2010 6:40 am

I am starting to recieve more and more emails that I can't open the attachment in. These are files that when I try to download and open the attachment it gives me an option of choosing a from a list of programs to open with, and none of the programs on the list will open it. These are all file with an RFC-822 data extension,,,,and I have found out that they are mostly being sent from a win7 user. Two of my friends that I have always rec'd and opened emils from have recently switched to win 7 and now I can't open the attachments they send. I understand that they used to send from an outlook express account,,,,which win7 does not have??? I have seen "free" programs (more and more) available that will open RFC-822 data files,,but I'm afraid to try them with all the scam "free" programs and downloads????

ALSO,,,,my email is google,,,,but I've been told that yahoo has included a "fix" that will open these attachments?????

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 18 Mar 2010 7:25 am

That might be happening because the emails are being sent as an attachment, rather than an actual email. You have no control over that, it's the sender. You could try saving the attachment to your desktop and re-naming the extension .rtf and then try to open it.

Sonny Jenkins · Post by **Sonny Jenkins** » 18 Mar 2010 9:21 am

Thanks Cal,,,I think this has something to do with the way win7 forwards the emails,,,because when these same people were sending me attachments from their old (XP) program,,,no problem. These people are like me,,they don't know how the mail is being forwarded,,they just hit the forward button (or whatever win7 has)and hope it goes through. And as more and more of my contacts change over to win7, the more of these kinds of extensions I'm seeing.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 18 Mar 2010 10:01 am

Sonny;
Ask your friends which email client they are using to send you these files. It will help us find a fix, if there is one.

I used to use Outlook Express, but upgraded to Windows Live Mail after support for Hotmail was dropped in OE. WLM resembles OE, but is more full featured.

Windows 7 does not ship with any installed email client. Users must download one of the choice and install it, then learn to use it. ASk your people which email program they are now using to compose and send to you.

John Cipriano · Post by **John Cipriano** » 18 Mar 2010 2:58 pm

Most of the mail clients I've seen have an option that says something like "send forwarded message as attachment." Your friend needs to turn it off if it is on.

Sonny Jenkins · Post by **Sonny Jenkins** » 18 Mar 2010 3:11 pm

John,,the messages I get from them that are just text are ok,,,I can read the text just fine. But when there are pictures or attachments,,they are always RFC-822 data files. There seems to be quite a bit on the web about those types of files,,,even "free" downloads that will open those files. But I saw something here a few days ago kinda warning us about downloading these "free" things,,,forgot exactly what it was.

I'm trying to find out more about my friends email clients,,may not be able to since they are probably as tech illiterate as I am,,,,us dummies stick together!!!

Sonny Jenkins · Post by **Sonny Jenkins** » 19 Mar 2010 6:35 am

Wiz,,two of my friends say that they used to use outlook express,,,but when they changed over to win7 they had to go to MS outlook. That is the client they are sending the attachments that I can't open from.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 19 Mar 2010 6:58 am

Sonny Jenkins wrote:Wiz,,two of my friends say that they used to use outlook express,,,but when they changed over to win7 they had to go to MS outlook. That is the client they are sending the attachments that I can't open from.

Sonny;
You have three options that I am aware of.

Purchase MS Outlook, or install it from a licensed copy of MS Office.
Ask your friends to download and install the free Windows Live Mail and do so yourself. It can import messages and accounts from Outlook Express and possibly also from MS Outlook.
Ask your friends to send images and documents as attachments, with their correct file types intact (image.jpg, prospectus.doc, hostile.pdf, virus.exe, virus.jpg.exe, etc, etc). Then you can open them in the associated program that is installed on your PC

Sonny Jenkins · Post by **Sonny Jenkins** » 10 Apr 2010 8:40 am

These are getting to be more and more of a problem!!! I google these file types and get all kinds of "fixes" and download options to repair registry etc? Is there really something wrong with my registry,,,or drivers?? Are these downloads legitimate and necessary "fixes"??? What in the h*LL are these kinds of files? Why am I seeing so many more of them lately? Friends that I used to receive email from and open all the time,,,now when I see it is from them I already know I can't open it. All say they have changed nothing other than the new win7 OS. I NEED HELP!!!!!!

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 10 Apr 2010 1:20 pm

Sonny Jenkins wrote:These are getting to be more and more of a problem!!!
<SNIP>
Friends that I used to receive email from and open all the time ... All say they have changed nothing other than the new win7 OS. I NEED HELP!!!!!!

Not true Sonny. They used to send you email via Outlook Express, which came with their XP computers, but no longer is supported. Since it no longer exists and there is no email client installed in Windows 7, they told you they have started using Microsoft Outlook to send email. Unless they are able to reconfigure Outlook to behave like Outlook Express, your only solution is to install the same program on your computer. If you cannot install MS Outlook, ask them if they are willing to change to Windows Live Mail. It closely resembles Outlook Express, but is much more modern, has a junk filter and is supported by MS.

If you and your friends cannot get on the same code page you will never be able to open their attachments sent from MS Outlook.

BTW: MS Outlook is a business email client. Outlook Express and Windows Live Mail are consumer email clients.

John Cipriano · Post by **John Cipriano** » 10 Apr 2010 11:18 pm

I think we were able to open one of those files with Thunderbird's open menu, right? Does that still work?

It's a strange problem. I've never seen it before and have set up a lot of clients, which leads me to (still) believe it's the sender's fault.

Now, one thing that can happen is your antivirus (at least AVG does this) will tag the bottom of the message, saying that it's scanned it. This can show up as an attachment.

http://www.techerator.com/2009/03/thund ... tachments/

But that'd be happening for all messages, so I dunno.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 11 Apr 2010 2:25 am

I use Office/Outlook 2003 and it handles attachments the same way Outlook or Windows Live Mail does. It doesn't do anything different or strange so I doubt that Outlook is the problem.

Looking at the many hits on google it appears to be something that is being attached by some e-mail server or router and has nothing to do with the actual message.

Don Sulesky · Post by **Don Sulesky** » 11 Apr 2010 6:45 am

I use Windows Live Mail since I went to Win 7 on my computer last October.
I get Attachments that will not open quite often.
What I do is use "save As" and save it to the folder
I want it to go to then it will open.
Why it works,I don't know, I'm not computer savy.
It just works for me.
Try doing this and see if it helps.
Don

Sonny Jenkins · Post by **Sonny Jenkins** » 11 Apr 2010 8:03 am

John,,,I forgot how I did that before,,,but I remember at the time I tried it on several others and it didn't work. It seems to be much more of a problem since I started using gmail,,,and I've posted the problem on the gmail help forum but have gotten no response. Seems like gmail would address it? (I did address the AVG thing,,,doesn't seem to make any difference)

Don,,,I can't find a "save as" option?

Is Windows Live Mail a web based mail server. The reason I'm trying to switch from T'Bird to gmail is to store my emails in case of a computer crash etc.

I'm going to ask some of these friends to send me the same emails to my T'Bird account and see if it makes any difference

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 11 Apr 2010 8:39 am

Sonny Jenkins wrote: Is Windows Live Mail a web based mail server. The reason I'm trying to switch from T'Bird to gmail is to store my emails in case of a computer crash etc.

Sonny;
No, WLM is a desktop email client. All incoming and sent mail is stored on your hard drive. However, you do have an option that you can select to "leave mail on the mail server." This can be done permanently, or for X number of days.

Normally, a POP3 desktop mail client downloads email messages, then removes them from the mail server, just like you remove postal mail from your mailboxes. Leaving it the server means it keeps showing up each time you check for new mail, even if you delete the message from the WLM Inbox.

WLM has a junk filter and also a blocked senders list. You can block spam senders and domains so their messages go straight to the "Deleted" folder.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 24 Apr 2010 12:14 pm

RFC822 is the original text file format for the ARPANET, precursor to the internet - http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc822.html

It has been replaced by new standards, but this should just be a text file in MIME format - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIME.

Follow Cal's suggestion with these additions:

1. save the attachment, and then change/add the 3-letter suffix to .txt or .rtf
2. scan with anti-virus software
3. try to open with Wordpad