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Can Microsoft Mail Do MIME?

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Leo Berz

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Nov 29, 1995, 3:00:00 AM11/29/95
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I am working with a company who is using Microsoft Mail, although we
can send and receive E-mail messages I can not send them attachments as
they are not set up for or can not receive MIME attachments. Does
anyone know if this is possible, either in set-up, upgrade or other
inexpensive options?

If anyone has some information I would greatly appreciate a response.

Leo Berz
be...@ix.netcom.com

Mark D. Nagel

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Nov 29, 1995, 3:00:00 AM11/29/95
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Sorry Leo for picking your posting to launch into my semi-flame, but ...

This seems to bring up the bigger question of why the major online
service providers don't appear willing to provide MIME support. We
contacted AOL, Compuserve and Prodigy and this is what we found out:

Q. Do they support MIME Base64 Encoding:

Compuserve - No

AOL - No

Prodigy - No

Q. If No, will they in the future:

Compuserve - No (Future upgrade for auto uuen/decode w/in 1 year)

AOL - Maybe w/in 1 year

Prodigy - No (Won't even consider it)

Q. What encoding schemes to they currently support:

Compuserve - uuen/decode only

AOL - MIME Base32 & uuen/decode

Prodigy - uuen/decode

Q. To whom can we give feedback to regarding this issue:

Compuserve - 7000...@compuserve.com

AOL - stev...@aol.com

Prodigy - snailmail to corporate headquarters


It appears that the major online vendors are hesitant to move to
MIME. I am assuming that the email market size of these online
service providers is greater than that of the MIME market. If it
isn't, then it soon will be.

Perhaps the AOL, Compuserve and Prodigy powers can be pressured
into jumping on the MIME bandwagon.


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Ned Freed

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Nov 30, 1995, 3:00:00 AM11/30/95
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> I am working with a company who is using Microsoft Mail, although we
> can send and receive E-mail messages I can not send them attachments as
> they are not set up for or can not receive MIME attachments. Does
> anyone know if this is possible, either in set-up, upgrade or other
> inexpensive options?

Microsoft Mail doesn't provide MIME support. Microsoft Exchange may,
although it isn't clear what form this support will take.

There are a variety of solutions available from various third parties.
I'd recommend that you peruse the MIME FAQ for this list -- it should
suggest several starting points.

Ned

Keith Moore

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Dec 1, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/1/95
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> AOL - MIME Base32 & uuen/decode

"MIME Base32"? There ain't no such thing.

Mark D. Nagel

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Dec 1, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/1/95
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On Fri, 01 Dec 1995 06:38:21 -0500 Keith Moore wrote:

I know that. The information was obtained second-party from these vendors. It
shows that they don't have a clue :-(

-mark

Lindsay

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Dec 3, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/3/95
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>> "MIME Base32"? There ain't no such thing.
>
>I know that. The information was obtained second-party from these vendors. It
>shows that they don't have a clue :-(

Perhaps it was a half-baked implementation of base64? <VBG>
---------------------------------------------
Lindsay Mathieson, a Kiwi in Brisbane, Australia
Using MailCat for Win32 Beta Vs 1.50
On December 3, 1995, 6:01:45 pm
Windows 4.0, DOS unknown
Team OS/2
For best results, use SET BUGS=OFF


Steinar Bang

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Dec 4, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/4/95
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>>>>> "NF" == Ned Freed <n...@sigurd.innosoft.com> writes:

NF> Microsoft Mail doesn't provide MIME support. Microsoft Exchange
NF> may, although it isn't clear what form this support will take.

It understands MIME-encoded attachments. The problem is in the
text/plain messages you send out. The mail composer doesn't break
lines, when the message hits the MIME conversion stuff, the line
length triggers the use of Q-P, even if the message was composed in
pure US-ASCII.

When this is recived by people without MIME-compatible MUAs, they see
a lot of =^J sequences and a lot of =20 sequences, and it looks broken
(the ususal complaint about Q-P from people without MIME-compatible
MUAs).

But if you *have* a MIME-compatible MUA, the message *still* looks
broken, because then you see it as one long line (line wrapped on my
MUA (mh-e + tm), other MUAs may handle it differently).

Oh well!


Carl S. Gutekunst

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Dec 6, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/6/95
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>It understands MIME-encoded attachments. The problem is in the text/plain
>messages you send out. The mail composer doesn't break lines, when the
>message hits the MIME conversion stuff, the line length triggers the use of
>Q-P, even if the message was composed in pure US-ASCII.

Huh. The version that I wrote -- the one that went out in Exchange Beta 1 --
had a lot of work in the line wrapping logic to make sure it was done right,
as well as a lot of work to make sure that non-MIME MUAs didn't see MIME-ish
things unless they had to. Non-MIME users *hate* gettign QP text.

Of course, Microsoft pitched Worldtalk's gateway in Exchange Beta 2 (for some
very sensible reasons, actually), and with it all the efforts at friendliness
and interoperability went out the window....

<csg>

Steinar Bang

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Dec 6, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/6/95
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>>>>> "CSG" == Carl S Gutekunst <c...@clavinova.eng.sun.com> writes:

>> It understands MIME-encoded attachments. The problem is in the text/plain
>> messages you send out. The mail composer doesn't break lines, when the
>> message hits the MIME conversion stuff, the line length triggers the use of
>> Q-P, even if the message was composed in pure US-ASCII.

CSG> Huh. The version that I wrote -- the one that went out in
CSG> Exchange Beta 1 -- had a lot of work in the line wrapping logic
CSG> to make sure it was done right, as well as a lot of work to make
CSG> sure that non-MIME MUAs didn't see MIME-ish things unless they
CSG> had to. Non-MIME users *hate* gettign QP text.

True!

CSG> Of course, Microsoft pitched Worldtalk's gateway in Exchange
CSG> Beta 2 (for some very sensible reasons, actually), and with it
CSG> all the efforts at friendliness and interoperability went out
CSG> the window....

Sigh! Sooo close...

Any chance of getting the line wrapping code back in again? The stuff
generated by the MS Exchange of the release version is a headache even
*with* a MIME compatible MUA.

I end up hand editing every message I'm receiving from MS Exchange.

- Steinar


Claudio Sousa

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Dec 11, 1995, 3:00:00 AM12/11/95
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be...@ix.netcom.com (Leo Berz) wrote:


>I am working with a company who is using Microsoft Mail, although we
>can send and receive E-mail messages I can not send them attachments as
>they are not set up for or can not receive MIME attachments. Does
>anyone know if this is possible, either in set-up, upgrade or other
>inexpensive options?

Don't quote me on this, but I think it may have to do with the email
gateway. Although MS-Mail supports MIME, the gateway may be something
other than the latest MS-Mail SMTP Gateway. If this is the case, an
upgrade of the SMTP gateway may be in order.

Hope this helps.

-------------------------------------------
Mr. Claudio Sousa, PC Analyst
Credit Union Central of Manitoba
PO BOX 9900, 215 Garry Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 3E2
Ph: (204) 985-4862 Fax: (204) 957-0849
Email: cso...@magic.mb.ca
-------------------------------------------


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