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HM> All clients are using Outlook Express 5 and were installed and configured by
HM> our own personnel, they all connect to one of two servers. The missing
HM> attachments are random, it's not clients on one server and not the other
HM> that receive the attachments and very rarely the same person twice,
HM> attachments sent direct to the clients always arrive they only go missing
HM> when sent to the list.

welp, that complicates things a bit, eh?  :)

I still am not inclined to point the fault finger at the server, just
yet.  My guess is that you have already been on a Branta canadensis
chase with the server.  First, locate a failed email.  Then find in
the list server logs where it sent that email.  If the message byte
size is the same as one that was delivered successful, we've
eliminated the server.  If not, now ya got something to work with when
talking to vircom.

Next, start with the client that you *know* failed and work backwards.
Inspect its header information for clues.

Here is an example of something that I sent with an attachment not too
long ago to vopmailbeta, and this is the replicated broadcast header
info that I got back:


Return-path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Received: from 216.106.78.14 (unverified [216.106.78.14]) by
polaron.inet-power.net
(Vircom SMTPRS 4.7.192) with ESMTP id
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
 Mon, 9 Sep 2002 11:44:06 -0500
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2002 11:44:23 -0500
From: John Blue <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v1.60q) Educational
Organization: Internet Power
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [VOPmail Beta] filter troubles or Find a match and win a
prize!!
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----------1AAF1CC11F502FE"
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

------------1AAF1CC11F502FE
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

blah blah blah

John Blue
------------1AAF1CC11F502FE
Content-Type: text/plain; name="spamflt0.txt"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="spamflt0.txt"

<attachment code>

------------1AAF1CC11F502FE--



What your looking for is how the email is broken up into the different
sections with the 'Content-Type boundary' hex code.  In this example
it is:

------------1AAF1CC11F502FE


The end of the message can be found where the boundary hex code is
appended with --.  If your suspect email is very similar to the above
structure, the attachment *is* being delivered, and the client is
mangling it somehow.

If it is not similar to the above, then next move futher back upstream
to the server that last had its hands on it.  The logs will tell you if
it received an email for delivery with an attachment.

Compare actual message byte sizes to a confirmed attachment delivery,
and so on.


John Blue


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