I'm glad you have this sorted.
Sending separate attachments dates back to earlier standards, and the default for new installs changed some time ago to embedded attachments.
I've been sending .doc (MS Word) and .ccw (Crossword Compiler) for some years using Pegasus and Mercury. Since upgrading to Mercury 4.52 most (not all strangely enough) have been going missing in transit. The Mercury SMTP client connects to my ISP mail server, sends and registers an OK message for each of the email segments but usually the attachments are not received. I've tried sending via two different ISPs but with the same results. I've also tried sending with Forte Agent and the attachments DO get through. I had no such problems with Mercury 4.01 and did a straight upgrade (I don't remember if I upgraded to 4.51 first though I do have the setup file on my hard drive). Am I missing something?
John D.
To try and find out where the problem is occuring, turn on session logging in MercuryC and examine the log to see if the mail is completely transferred to your ISP. (Fill in a directory and check the enable box on the configuration page.)
In the core module configuration / mail queue, do you have 'process queue in two passes' checked?
I've turned on session logging, sent myself some emails with attachments to a hotmail account and both .doc and .ccw files got there :-(
Looks like a spurious problem. I'll try a few times more till the problem resurfaces.
FWIW the end of the log file looks like this:
20:10:32.703: << AABFAAAAAAAAAAA=<cr><lf>
20:10:32.703: << <cr><lf>
20:10:32.703: << --Message-Boundary-25705--<cr><lf>
20:10:32.703: << .<cr><lf>
20:10:32.937: >> 250 Ok: queued as 8BD96E000C32<cr><lf>
20:10:32.937: << QUIT<cr><lf>
20:10:32.031: >> 221 Bye<cr><lf>
20:10:32.031: --- Connection closed normally at Thu Oct 04 20:10:32 2007. ---
20:10:32.031:
and I do have 'process queue in two passes' checked.
Thanks for your response.
John D.
I've been suspicious that AVs might be the cause of the problem from the start. I set up a Hotmail account for myself and have been mailing attachments to it for the past few days. All got through. Yesterday I sent two Word documents to a third party and copied the message to the Hotmail account. The attachments got to Hotmail but not to my correspondent. I tried again using Agent and they got through to him. His ISP is Blueyonder, which may not mean anything to you, dear reader, if you don't live in the UK. I'm considering contacting them to see if they have any idea what the problem is. There was a time when people (who should have known better) said that Pegasus and Mercury were intended for bulk mailing (of spam). I wonder if this could be a hangover from that.
John D.
That test seems to indicate that there is nothing happening to your emails during the sending process.
I've not heard of any problems with Blueyonder, and I mail a weekly newsletter (.doc) to many with those addresses with no problems.
Another approach would be to zip the attachments first and see if you have greater success with that.
Today I've sent a .ccw file as an attachment to a Plus Net address, copied to my Hotmail address. The Hotmail copy got through but the copy to Plus Net was mangled. I resent to both addresses using Forte Agent and both got through. I am utterly at a loss :-(
John D.
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Sometimes the attachment is missing and sometimes it is 'mangled'. Is there an attachment which doesn't open automatically by the usual application (Word etc.)? Do you get any error message from the mail client or application?
Could you provide an example of a complete message (small preferably) when it is mangled?
"The one you just sent had no attachment but a whole lot of gibberish in the body of the message" was the message I got from one of my editors. He uses Thunderbird as an email client and Plus Net as an ISP. He had previously reported a missing attachment. The other, using Outlook Express and Blueyonder as ISP, simply reported there were no attachments. They are both very busy people and I'm reluctant to try getting them more involved than they need to be. I've not managed to reproduce any of the faults at my hotmail address, the attachments get there. I've now created a Plus Net account for myself and when it's fully activated will do further testing. Virgin seem to have taken over Blueyonder and I can't see a way of creating a Blueyonder address for me to check that out.
Thanks for your interest.
John D.
I've sent three pairs of emails to my Hotmail and Plus Net accounts, with attachments. The Hotmail account receives them almost immediately. The Plus Net account received the first email and attachment together. The second email arrived quickly but the attachment showed up half an hour later, and the third arrived quickly but the attachment was over an hour later. The Plus Net headers give the spam assessment rating as less than 1 in a 100 for all six so why the delay? Forte Agent sends emails and attachments as single files so if you receive one you are bound to receive the other, unlike Pegasus which sends them separately. I'm viewing these received files and attachments in Hotmail and Plus Net's webmail systems where they appear as separate emails but how do Thunderbird and Outlook Express deal with emails and attachments where one arrives some time after the other?
John D.
I think I've resolved this problem. In Tools|Options|Sending Mail I have unchecked Send attachments as separate messages. Preliminary test show the attachments, now part of the main body of the email, get through properly. I now wonder what is the purpose of sending attachments as separate messages and why this is, or was, the default. I must have been using Pegasus/Mercury for ten years now and will still have the defaults from that time. Has this changed over the years? BTW I've also checked the Don't add "attachment information" sections to multipart messages. I think people mostly find it irritating and unnecessary.
Hope this helps somebody
John D.
