Sending Ms Access Attachments

[mmungai]

Hi,

Am trying to send an Ms Access Attachment on Outlook Express but the recipient cannot access it. The message "OE removed to the following unsafe attachment in your mail" appears on top of the sent attachment.

How do I effectively send this crucial attachment?


Mmungai

[ChipR]

You can try changing the extension of the filename for the attachment to something like .txt, but most likely the email server software is still going to block it, and you'll have to transfer the file some other way.

[topher23]

What is the attachment? What is the file type? This is really about what Outlook filters out, so it's important to know these things.

[NeoPa]

I would compress it into a ZIP file first, then attach this smaller file to your email.

While you may get warnings for ZIP files, they are invariably allowed through.

An added bonus is that you're not wasting so much bandwidth on both of the email servers.

[ChipR]

I wouldn't assume anything about the email server Mmungai has to go through. My mail, for example, gets stripped of .ace, .ad, .ade, .adp, .asp, .b64, .bas, .bat, .bhx, .ceo, .ce0, .chm, .com, .cmd, .cpl, .crt, .dbx, .dll, .dot, .eml, .exe, .hlp, .hqx, .hta, .inf, .ins, .js, .jse, .lnk, .mdb, .mde, .mim, .msi, .msp, .nch, .ocx, .pi, .pif, .rar, .reg, .scr, .sct, .shb, .shs, .upx, .uue, .uu, .vbe, .vbs, .vss, .vst, .vsw, .wmi, .ws, .wsc, .wsf, .wsh, .xxe, and .zip.

[NeoPa]

Invariably may be overstating it slightly Chip, but I would say any server managed by someone who knows what they're about would allow through ZIP files. I cannot conceive of a setup (corporate or otherwise) where it would make good sense to block ZIP files (and I do understand the level of threat they pose to companies where the staff may be fooled into opening one and executing code contained in one of the content files).

Actually, a scenario is conceivable, it's just so rare that it's hardly worth consideration. As a general rule, ZIP files are allowed through by even the most security conscious, as they will realise that more harm than good can result from blocking them. Your own proposed solution to this problem illustrates a simple way around the restriction. In such an environment this technique is likely to be shared around much more widely than is usual, and the weakest link in the security barrier is thus made weaker still. On top of this is the difficulty imposed upon staff of handling common and basic requirements of their work. A lose-lose situation when understood fully. Hence never recommended.

I consider this such a rarity that I would handle it as a special case were it ever to be indicated as the situation the OP is in.