[eatinwokout]

im having some trouble here. im using the mail.app to send out messages through my gmail account and pop. the past couple messages i've sent out are showing up on the windows side as having a virus attached. is anyone else getting this or am i doing something wrong. i know when i click attach in the compose window the i get a window that pops up asking me what file to attach. at the bottom of that window there is something about making the attachment windows friendly. do i need to be using that?

[Cadaver]

Originally posted by eatinwokout:
im having some trouble here. im using the mail.app to send out messages through my gmail account and pop. the past couple messages i've sent out are showing up on the windows side as having a virus attached. is anyone else getting this or am i doing something wrong. i know when i click attach in the compose window the i get a window that pops up asking me what file to attach. at the bottom of that window there is something about making the attachment windows friendly. do i need to be using that?

Can't say why your messages are being flagged as carrying viruses, but I always leave "Windows friendly" attachments on, even when sending items to Mac users.

[eatinwokout]

well i just don't understand what's going on. this is a brand new powerbook that i just connected to the net. i was sending a pdf file that i created.

[CaptainHaddock]

Originally posted by eatinwokout:
im having some trouble here. im using the mail.app to send out messages through my gmail account and pop. the past couple messages i've sent out are showing up on the windows side as having a virus attached. is anyone else getting this or am i doing something wrong. i know when i click attach in the compose window the i get a window that pops up asking me what file to attach. at the bottom of that window there is something about making the attachment windows friendly. do i need to be using that?

Files on a Mac have two parts - the "data fork" (which is all Windows files have) and a "resource fork" that holds extra information about the file for Mac OS X.

If you don't click the option to make attachments Windows-friendly, Mail.app will attach the resource fork as a hidden file. Windows mail programs might not know what to do it and tag the file as a suspected worm just out of ignorance. If you do check the Windows-friendly option, Mail.app won't attach the resource fork.

[eatinwokout]

really? i started sending my attachments without the windows friendly ticked and my recipients stopped complaining about a virus warning.

[Preciousss]

Something similar happened to me with Gmail and Mail. I sent a mass email out with some cut and pasted HTML from a webpage (description of the movie "Beautiful Boxer"), as well as a hyperlink (no attachments). Heard back from one friend who got this message from his mail client:

"Subject: Symantec AVF detected a message with an unscannable attachment in your mailbox

The attachment Message Body was Quarantined.

Please do not reply to this e-mail. An E-mail administrator has been notified and the unscannable attachment is in a quarantine location. It will be deleted automatically in if no action is taken. If you need to have this file restored from the quarantine, please submit a helpdesk request via the intranet."

All I heard back from him was that "there's a new automatic program in our system now" that throws "clean" email into their Spam Manager. But this was the first message he got about a virus. I'm not sure if the two are connected though.

The resource fork idea sounds like what may have been going on. But in my case I didn't include any attachments. I re-sent the message to my friend, this time without cutting and pasting HTML directly from the movie site, and all was fine. Not sure if the two were related though.

Anyway, another mystery.

[eatinwokout]

maybe it has to do something with gmail and pop access on the mail app?