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Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

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A note about attachments
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Zip Alternative

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    Zip Alternative

    A growing percentage of ISPs and a growing number companies are bouncing executable and zip attachments because of viruses. Some just bounce based upon the filename extension. Some do more intensive investigation which will thwart the method of simple renaming an "exe" or "zip" attachment.

    One of the ISPs I deal with said use ".tar" or "winrar" which are allowed. What are others doing here? I have the need to send application updates to clients and in one case one of my clients updates their client. I'd hate to have to return to snail mail!

    - John O
    John Oesterle
    ToolBytes, LLC

    #2
    RE: Zip Alternative

    We are a county in New Jersey, and we occasionally need to get updates from the state. They send them to us as "tar". We just rename the extension after receipt.

    Tom

    Comment


      #3
      RE: Zip Alternative

      Hi Tom -

      Yeh, a hospital I support said rename as "txt". Trouble is, apparently more and more ISPs/Companies are testing attachments beyond just the 3-letter filename extension. For example, I renamed a "zip" to "txt" and it was still bounced!
      John Oesterle
      ToolBytes, LLC

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Zip Alternative

        I'm not sure how much this will help you but I gave up on sending any update files as attachments.

        Most of them are fairly large anyway because I send the whole application. Especially since many mailboxes are limited to 10 meg or even 1 meg for the free ones, sending apps as attachments can be difficult even if the file type issue doesn't exist. (I used to send only the changes but there were too many times when I forgot to include all the changes so now I always send the whole thing.)

        Now, all my updates are uploaded to a customer folder on my website and I just send them an e-mail with a link to download it. This also has the advantage, since I almost always send updates as install files rather than zip files, that they can just "run/open" it from the web and don't even have to go through the apparently difficult task of remembering which file they saved it in. (I get very tired of explaining to people that they have to look at the "save in" folder when they download files or attachments so they can find them later.)

        Cal Locklin
        www.aimsdc.net

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Zip Alternative

          Cal,

          I use the same procedure as you do, however, I also offer sending the files on CD-Rom.

          Although many users might have a fast Cable or ADSL connection, even then I find in a rather disturbing number of cases the download results into problems for the user.
          For those without a fast internet connection, problems are even higher.
          Nothing is more annoying then having been busy downloading files for half an hour just to find that the download was corrupted in some way.

          So what I do is always warn the users upfront, that however the download is checked before release by downloading and installing it, problems might even then occur, and that I advise them to order a CD-Rom.
          Most of the time users don't even want to bother because they have other things to do, and just order the CD-Rom at costing price.

          Just my 2 cents.

          Kind regards,

          Marcel

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Zip Alternative

            Hi Cal -

            Good point on using your website. I keep putting off implementing this feature and this might be enough of a push to get me moving! A website file source would certainly solve supporting my clients.

            I have perhaps a unique situation where one of my clients passes updated tables to one of their largest customers, so that they may view, query and analyize their own data. I do this now via a button on my client's main menu that prepares a zip attachment and silently sends it to selected email addresses of their large customer. Their customer's main menu has an update procedure that automatically unzips and installs the updated tables. The two ISPs involved here currently do not block zips but my guess is it's just around the corner. I'm checking out the $29 Winrar as a zip alternative -- they include a command line version -- might buy a little more time.

            I guess there are enough tricks around to circumvent potential blocking methods for the near future. And, there is always Marcel's CD.

            - John O



            John Oesterle
            ToolBytes, LLC

            Comment


              #7
              RE: Zip Alternative

              John

              You may want to expand on the web site idea and avoid email altogether. I use a cold fusion routine that my ISP developed that allows files to be sent to my web site.

              From there I can send a email with an attachment, or ftp it to where I want to go.

              You may want to consider implementing a WAS portion to your system and integrate file uploads and downloads with the WAS.

              Staying out of email land for file transfers is probably a good idea for a future direction.
              Al Buchholz
              Bookwood Systems, LTD
              Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

              Occam's Razor - KISS
              Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
              Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
              When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
              "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
              Albert Einstein

              http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

              Comment


                #8
                RE: Zip Alternative

                Speaking of timely, I just looked at the release notes for a5v6 1541-2020. More support for ftp is included.

                You should take a look at that.

                http://downloads.alphasoftware.com/a5v6download/releasenotes.html
                Al Buchholz
                Bookwood Systems, LTD
                Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

                Occam's Razor - KISS
                Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
                Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
                When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
                "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
                Albert Einstein

                http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: Zip Alternative

                  Hi Al -

                  Good suggestions all. I'll take a look at the v6 ftp enhancement(s). Thanks.

                  - John O
                  John Oesterle
                  ToolBytes, LLC

                  Comment

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