This message is in MIME Format

[John E. Malmberg]

Rachel Wrote:

[Message is currently being held in the possible spam queue for manual 
release.  I do not have authority to release it]

> X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19)
> Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
> 	boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C3DC2F.91D69A40"
> 
> This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
> this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.
> 
> ------_=_NextPart_001_01C3DC2F.91D69A40
> Content-Type: text/plain;
> 	charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Good Day
> 
> I have the following error.  Kindly let me know how to resolve it
> 
> This message is in MIME format since your Mail reader does not understand
> this information some or all of this message may not be legible.  Is this
> problem coming from the server (Exchange 5.5) or from the clients machines?
> 
> Regards, Rachel


Rachel, you will see that error message when someone sends a MIME 
formatted e-mail to a mail reader that either does not understand MIME, 
or has MIME disabled for security reasons.

E-Mail traditionally is PLAIN-TEXT only.  MIME is an optional 
enhancement that should only be used when you know that the recipiant 
wants to receive it.

The SAMBA mailing lists will remove all but the plain text portions of a 
posting, and any attachements that are not plain-text.

This can leave message like that in posting, particularly when spam gets 
through.  The MIME part of the spam will not get through.


Your message was sent in MIME, and that may be reasont that the SAMBA 
spam filter flagged it as possible spam for manual moderation.

I would recommend that you set your e-mail program to send in plain-text 
by default when mailing out to the public internet, and only turn on 
HTML or RICH TEXT when you are sending to someone that you know wants to 
accept MIME formatted e-mails.  This will help prevent content filters 
from misclassifying your e-mail.

Almost all spam or viruses are sent in HTML format, so the presence of 
the HTML and the tag that your mailer put on the message are one of the 
key metrics that a content based spam filter looks for.

Some people will go so far as to automatically delete unread all MIME 
encoded e-mails.

In addition, if your e-mail program is displaying HTML by default, and 
opening external links for pictures automatically, it can give out 
information to spammers automatically.

When an e-mail program opens a link in the spam, it uses your web 
browser program to do so.  That link at a minimum tells the spammer that 
your mail server is accepting their spam, so that they can target more 
spam to your domain.

The link can also have your e-mail address encoded in it, which confirms 
to the spammer that your e-mail address is live and that their spam is 
getting through to it.  In addtion some web browsers will happily give 
out your e-mail address to web sites that ask for it.

-John
wb8tyw at qsl.network
Personal Opinion Only