*.DAT files

[rmo555]

I have a friend who sends me email and the attachments are always in
the format of *.DAT. Can anyone shed some light on this? I Googled
the issue and, from what I understand, it might be a virus issue.
Thanks........

 

[VanguardLH]

I have a friend who sends me email and the attachments are always in
the format of *.DAT.

The DAT filetype is used by many different applications with different
structuring of the content within. Would be far more helpful if you had
actually specified an example attachment file. Was it winmail.dat?

Can anyone shed some light on this? I Googled the issue and, from
what I understand, it might be a virus issue.

Tell your "friends" to stop composing RTF (rich-text format) e-mails in
Outlook. The only e-mail client that understands RTF is Outlook. Other
e-mail clients don't understand Microsoft's proprietary TNEF structure
(RTF also includes HTML format but Microsoft has blinders and sees RTF
as only referring to their proprietary TNEF structure). Not even
Microsoft's own Outlook Express understands RTF. Apparently that is not
what you are using as your e-mail client.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/241538
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290809

RTF (aka TNEF) should only be used by a sender using Outlook when they
can guarantee the recipient is also using Outlook. Also, RTF should
also be used between Outlook-using sender and recipient who are within
the same Exchange mail server organization (to prevent corruption of the
winmail.dat content).

Since this is ONLY an e-mail issue, would've been better for you to
inquire within a newsgroup that discusses your particular e-mail client.
Hard to tell what you got as a .dat attachment since you never gave the
full filename for the attachment. A .dat file might have only text
within it that you could see using Notepad. It might've been a
winmail.dat file used to carry the formatting information for an e-mail
composed using Microsoft's proprietary RTF structure. If you visit
http://filext.com/alphalist.php?extstart=^D, you'll see there are
several possible uses of the .dat extension of a filename.

 

[rmo555]

The DAT filetype is used by many different applications with different
structuring of the content within. Would be far more helpful if you had
actually specified an example attachment file. Was it winmail.dat?


Tell your "friends" to stop composing RTF (rich-text format) e-mails in
Outlook. The only e-mail client that understands RTF is Outlook. Other
e-mail clients don't understand Microsoft's proprietary TNEF structure
(RTF also includes HTML format but Microsoft has blinders and sees RTF
as only referring to their proprietary TNEF structure). Not even
Microsoft's own Outlook Express understands RTF. Apparently that is not
what you are using as your e-mail client.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/241538
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290809

RTF (aka TNEF) should only be used by a sender using Outlook when they
can guarantee the recipient is also using Outlook. Also, RTF should
also be used between Outlook-using sender and recipient who are within
the same Exchange mail server organization (to prevent corruption of the
winmail.dat content).

Since this is ONLY an e-mail issue, would've been better for you to
inquire within a newsgroup that discusses your particular e-mail client.
Hard to tell what you got as a .dat attachment since you never gave the
full filename for the attachment. A .dat file might have only text
within it that you could see using Notepad. It might've been a
winmail.dat file used to carry the formatting information for an e-mail
composed using Microsoft's proprietary RTF structure. If you visit
http://filext.com/alphalist.php?extstart=^D, you'll see there are
several possible uses of the .dat extension of a filename.

The filename I refer to (today) is winmail8.dat.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: <[email protected]>


| The filename I refer to (today) is winmail8.dat.

This isn't malware related. It is email client/server related. It has to do with with
how the interaction of different email servers and email clients interact.

 

[VanguardLH]

The filename I refer to (today) is winmail8.dat.

That was covered by my prior post (I guessed that might be the
attachment's filename) and why your non-Outlook e-mail client can't
figure out what to do with that attachment. Tell the sender to stop
using RTF. For Internet recipients, they should be using plain text or
HTML format for composing their outbound e-mails.

If you're stuck with an obstinate sender that won't stop using RTF then
you can get a viewer application, like Winmail Opener from Eolsoft, that
will show you the e-mail with the formatting in the winmail.dat
attachment applied to the e-mail.

 

[Slarty]

Easier said than done. Most people not only don't know how to change
program settings, they don't want to know. IMO, certain data format
standards should be mandated, not because I believe in big gummint, but
because too many people can't be bothered to be courteous. And too many
companies won't agree to use each other's formats ("intellectual
property" and all that crap.)
[...]

Then why bother dealing with such ignorant uncooperative dolts?

Cheers,

Roy

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Wolf K" <[email protected]>

Easier said than done. Most people not only don't know how to change
program settings, they don't want to know. IMO, certain data format
standards should be mandated, not because I believe in big gummint, but
because too many people can't be bothered to be courteous. And too many
companies won't agree to use each other's formats ("intellectual
property" and all that crap.)
[...]

Then why bother dealing with such ignorant uncooperative dolts?
Cheers,
Roy

| You can't avoid them.

| cheers,
| wolf k.

LOL -- They are called Google Groupers !

 

[VanguardLH]

Easier said than done. Most people not only don't know how to change
program settings, they don't want to know. IMO, certain data format
standards should be mandated, not because I believe in big gummint,
but because too many people can't be bothered to be courteous. And
too many companies won't agree to use each other's formats
("intellectual property" and all that crap.) [...]

Then why bother dealing with such ignorant uncooperative dolts?

You can't avoid them.

Sure there is. Put them in your blacklist that deletes their e-mail
(locally or up on the server). You can probably even define a server-
side rule in your e-mail account to auto-delete their e-mails. The
sender which is being discussed here is probably always using the same
e-mail address in the From header. I doubt the OP said "friend" to
refer to a spamming, malicious, or harrassing sender. It's just a dumb
friend. As to whether his friend will reconfigure remains to be seen.
All if often takes is a nudge with explanation to educate that friend as
to what is needed to compose their e-mails in a format that is more
univerally accepted. We don't know that the friend will refuse.