Mailer Behaviour and MIME
Paul Yau
Dear Sirs,
If I start up the mailer behaviour discussion, I apologize. It
shouldn't be discussed here though it's somewhat connected. To help
stopping this discussion, I'd like to share my experience with you
and hope that it can solve your problems.
Q: I'm a new comer. Where should I start?
A: Please DO visit TPC Home first at
http://www.tpc.int/tpc_home.html or
http://www-usa.tpc.int/tpc_home.html
Q: Where can I find the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and Answers?
A: You MUST NOT miss it at
http://www-usa.tpc.int/faq/tpcfaq.html or
Mail to tpc...@info.tpc.int
Q: Is the whole world covered by this TPC-RP service?
A: Maybe in the future, but not now. Please read
http://www-usa.tpc.int/fax_cover_auto.html or
Mail to tpcc...@info.tpc.int
Q: I received failing report. Why is that?
A: a. Inappropriate recipient address
Extra dots
Missing dots
Missing ".iddd"
Address truncated (length longer than, let's say, 70 chars)
b. Inappropriate message format
Mailer not fully MIME-compliant
Inappropriate or not supported MIME content types
Inappropriate encoding methods
c. Exceed page limit
d. Resolution not supported
e. Image format not supported or inappropriate
Q: I didn't even receive any confirmation about the delivery. Why
is that?
A: Possible answers,
a. The remote-printing server is down.
b. The original message is lost.
c. The confirmation is lost.
d. Inappropriate reply-to address
e. Inappropriate recipient address, maybe being truncated.
It really shouldn't happen because there's certain mechanism
providing that you should either receive confirmation from the
remote-printing server or rejection from the mail server.
Q: I don't like the default cover sheet. Can I replace it?
A: Technically speaking, yes. Please refer to TPC FAQ and RFC1528.
But actually, NO. It was told by the sysop of the remote-printing
server in my region. Can you request the ads banner being removed
from most WWW sites?
Q: How can I send an MS-Word document or an Xmas card to others from
the email software?
A: Please read TPC FAQ and RFC1521 (MIME).
Q: I sent a message attached with a TIFF image but it failed. Why
is that?
A: a. Use MIME. Disable "8-bit MIME message encoding."
b. Make sure the content type to be "image/tiff" and the encoding
method to be "BASE64."
c. Try a different output resolution
Q: I'm an MS-Windows user and I had paid attention to all the details
to create a postscript attachment but it didn't work. Why is
that?
A: a. Make sure the content type to be "application/postscript" and
the encoding method to be "BASE64."
b. Some postscript printer driver will generate proprietary
instructions to output and is not fully compatible with others.
Create an Apple Laser printer connection as the general purpose
postscript generator.
Q: Is there any painless method for me to fax a fancy letter?
A: Please read
http://www.tpc.int/clients/index.html
Q: Pegasus mail will create a short, file description to each
attachment. Can I remove it?
A: To my knowledge (Pegasus mail v2.52), no. For more information,
please join Pegasus mail discussion group by sending the request
to "list...@ua1vm.ua.edu" with a message body of "subscribe
pm-win your name" without the quotes.
Q: "Send enclosures instead of attachments" (Pegasus).
"Put text attachments in body of message" (Eudora Light).
What do they really mean and what's got to do with me?
A: It means plain text and attachments compose a single message. If
unchecking the option, each attachment will become an independent
message. Most mailers let users decide whether attachments should
be treated as separate messages or not. The default behaviour of
Pegasus mail and Eudora Light is to form separate messages. Be
aware that each message will generate a fax call and each call
will generate a cover sheet. And thus waste the free resources.
Please notice that, if the attachments become large enough, either
we can manually separate the attachments into several messages or
let the mailer do it for us by checking this option.
Q: Where can I find related information?
A: RFC1521 (MIME 1.0)
RFC1528 (application/remote-printing)
There are proper links to these docs in TPC FAQ. For other
fax services, please visit
http://www.savetz.com/fax/
Q: What would you suggest?
A: Before you benefit from this free service, please do some homework
by fully exploring the mailer power and by understanding the basic
requirements and rules of this service.
I'm not really an expert in this field and there might be mistakes in
my answers. Please feel free to send me your comment but not to the
list.
Regards,
Paul Yau