Sky SMTP sending attachments as encoded ASCII only...?

[hping]

(On behalf of in-laws, who have Sky Broadband.....)

They have been using Thunderbird with Sky's Gmail powered email for ages, no major problems. However, in the last couple of days, any message sent with attachments (various - whether ".jpg" pictures, or Word documents, etc.), the recipient is being presented with raw ASCII text in the displayed email [body] - you can see each MIME section defined, whether body, (UUencoded?? massive block of ASCII text) attachment, etc..

I reconfigured their email client to use my own ISP's smtp mail relays (they allow connection from outside their network if you authenticate against the server), and received the email perfectly - no descriptions of mime parts, just body text and attachments ready for downloading/saving.

I have been assured that nothing has been changed on the Thunderbird client - and they don't really log into the web interface, so I doubt that anything has been changed by them on the Sky/Gmail configuration settings.

Just wondered if anyone else has seen(/resolved) a similar problem??

Thanks,

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

if you configure their email account into OE and try it what happens?...

[hping]

Unfortunately, I'm 30miles away, and only have occasional remote desktop access to their PC (when they're there, and they've enabled it, etc.). Hence in the time I had earlier, I did manage to do *some* tests, including using an alternative SMTP relay, but didn't get around to trying a different email client. I did, however, also quickly try using the Sky/Gmail Webmail interface to send the attachments, and that worked o.k., So I will get around to trying a different email client, but the testing to date seemed to indicate a problem using the Sky/Gmail SMTP relay, hence the post.....

Thanks,

[horrido]

As of yesterday using Windows Mail in Vista the following occurred, it also happened on another machine using Windows 2000 and OE 6, so it is not something on my computer doing it.

I use other email addresses routed through the sky mail server.
Using plain text messages with other ISPs are fine(obviously) , as are @sky.com emails.

When using Rich Text (MIME) in Windows Mail native @sky.com messages to my other email addresses are normal but those from other email addresses routed through the Sky server have the entire message source displayed i.e. MIME information displayed before, in and after the actual message.

I can only assume it is something that Sky have done to the system overnight after 12/12/2008 as everything was fine at 17.30 on 12/12/2008 but messed up by 09.00 on 13/12/2008.

Horrido

[PaulSky]

Sky email is run by Google not Sky, if something has changed it may be temporary.

[horrido]

Can't contact Google though, which is why we are talking about Sky, the people who have it run for them by Google and have done so for some time now.

[hping]

(OP)

Well, as suggested, I configured Outlook Express to use Sky/Google's SMTP relay, and it was exactly the same as using Thunderbird - messages (with attachments) sent by either email client, when received at the other end, displayed as raw multi-part MIME (ASCII) sections....

In the meantime, I registered for a username/password for this site's SMTP service - and when using the SkyUser SMTP relay from either Thunderbird or OE, the message received at the other end is perfectly fine - simply the text from the message body, and the notification that there is an attachment to view/download.

So it seems that from those tests, it looks like a problem when using Sky's (Google's) SMTP Server. But if it's a general problem, I'm wondering why forums like this aren't lighting up with people suffering the same issue..??

I guess I need to speak with Sky's support - but not being the actual registered Sky Broadband customer, not sure how best to contact them, and how to try and resolve the problem when I'm not actually at the Broadband service location (not to mention a slight scepticism about how I'll fair trying to explain the problem to their support teams - are they better than they used to be when the broadband service was fist launched?? ).

Other than horrido, is anyone else aware that messages that they are sending, are not being received in an expected/the correct format...?? (of course, this will be down to the recipient actually telling the sender - otherwise the sender is in ignorant bliss about the issue!!!).

Thanks,

[nick73]

Hi. I'm using OE and have the same problem.
I sent a word attachment to myself and on opening i got,

"This is a multi-part message in MIME format."
Gues its back to Goggle for the answer.

[PaulSky]

Speaking with Sky support will get you no-where, they are not trained in handling SMTP setup issues server side, they are there to assist customers in accessing the email and tools system itself. You need to contact google via its' support groups etc directly.

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

it must be user specific as i don't have this issue at all, on googlemail or sky mail emails...