Cannot send attachments using Entourage 2001 or OE 5.0.2

M

Mike Rosenberg

I have a client with a 500MHz iBook, 384MB RAM, running Mac OS 9.1,
using Comcast Cable as his ISP. Since several days ago, he cannot
reliably send attachments over 20K using his preferred email client,
Entourage 2001. Anything larger than that gets transmitted part way
then just stops, with no error message ever apearing. The type of
attachment has no effect, nor does the type of encoding used, and it's
variable how much of the attachment gets sent. Entourage doesn't freeze
- he's able to quit, but that takes quite some time. (He told me it can
be upwards of half an hour).

Things I've done:

- Ran Disk Warrior 2.1 and Norton Disk Doctor 6.
- Installed the Office 2001 Service Release 1.
- Changed his smtp server from mail.attbi.com to smtp.comcast.net (which
is a change that was supposed to have been made at the end of June).
- Reinstalled Office 2001 and SR 1 after deleting the old version _and_
all extensions with Microsoft in the name.
- Backed up his Microsoft Identities folder and set up his account from
scratch.

Needless to say, all of this had no effect on the problem, else I
wouldn't be posting. Since he already also had Outlook Express 5.0.2
installed, I tried that and encountered the same problem. I also
installed Eudora, for comparison, and had no problems at all sending
attachments with that, nor were there any problems using Netscape.
Comcast has told him there are no problems at their end, and I believe
the result with Eudora and Netscape bear that out. He also has had no
problems sending attachments using Comcast's web mail, which has been
his workaround so far.

Obviously, one solution would be for him to switch to Eudora (for
example), but for now he's bent on continuing to use Entourage 2001, and
I'm out of things to try.

Any ideas?
 
B

Beth Rosengard

There are additional updaters for 2001. See

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/version.html#Anchor-Updaters>
Click to expand...

The additional updaters are not likely to help this problem (although they
should be installed anyway). However, it sounds like you did a manual
deletion of Office before reinstalling which could easily leave corrupted
files behind (there are literally hundreds of Office files). I recommend
you do a full removal/reinstall of Office using the proper removal tool.
It's possible that this won't fix the problem, but you need to start with a
clean slate.

-- If these files are important to you, back them up on external media for
later reinstallation:

Normal Template: Applications>Microsoft Office 2001>Templates
My Templates (your custom templates): same as above
Custom Dictionary: System Folder>Preferences>Microsoft
AutoCorrect List (Office ACL English): same as above

-- Download the Office 2001 Remover from
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/download/office2001/RemoveOffice.asp>. DO NOT
use the remover from the Office 2001 CD; it is not up-to-date.

-- With all Office applications closed, run it. That searches your hard
disk, and particularly your System folder, to make sure everything is
removed.

-- Rebuild the desktop.

-- Reinstall Office 2001 from the CD.

-- Start each Office 2001 application once to cause it to initialize itself.

-- Download and install the following updaters from Mactopia.com
(<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/download/default.asp#Office2001>) in this
order:

* Microsoft Office 2001 Service Release 1
* Microsoft Word 2001 Security Update: Macro Vulnerability
* Microsoft PowerPoint/Excel 2001 Macro Security Update
* Entourage 2001 - Hotmail Updater (even if you don¹t use Hotmail)
* Microsoft Office 2001 SSL Security Updater

-- Rebuild the desktop.

Hope this helps.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>
 
M

Mike Rosenberg

Beth Rosengard said:
However, it sounds like you did a manual
deletion of Office before reinstalling which could easily leave corrupted
files behind (there are literally hundreds of Office files). I recommend
you do a full removal/reinstall of Office using the proper removal tool...
Click to expand...

Thanks to both of you for your help. You're right, Beth, I did a manual
deletion. I won't get back to this problem until Thursday, but I'll be
sure to post here with the outcome after I've done everything you've
suggested.
 
M

Mike Rosenberg

Mike Rosenberg said:
Thanks to both of you for your help. You're right, Beth, I did a manual
deletion. I won't get back to this problem until Thursday, but I'll be
sure to post here with the outcome after I've done everything you've
suggested.
Click to expand...

Updating the situation, I got back with this client on Friday and did
everything that Diane and Beth suggested, running the Office 2001
removal tool, rebuidling the desktop, reinstalling Office 2001, running
all of the updates in the order Beth listed them, and again rebuilding
the desktop.

Unfortunately, the problem persists, and he can't reliably send
attachments over 20K using Entourage 2001 (or Outlook Express). As
someone suggested in comp.sys.mac.comm, I used IPNetTuner to drop the
MTU from 1500 to 1492 (a trick I'd once used successfully to deal with a
similar problem involving a DSL modem and router), but that also had no
effect, as did a clean reinstallation of Mac OS 9.

Any other ideas? I'm beginning to think it's some sort of hardware
issue, but I want to be sure I haven't overlooked any software issues.
 
M

Mike Rosenberg

Mike Rosenberg said:
Updating the situation, I got back with this client on Friday and did
everything that Diane and Beth suggested, running the Office 2001
removal tool, rebuidling the desktop, reinstalling Office 2001, running
all of the updates in the order Beth listed them, and again rebuilding
the desktop.
Click to expand...

Another followup: My client's problem persists, but I've now heard from
three other people, all having the identical problem sending attachments
from Entourage 2001 with Comcast as their cable ISP. No one I know here
using Entourage 2001 with any other ISP is having this problem. Based
on this, we're set to demend that Comcast look into this rather than
blame the customers' computers.
 
M

Mike Rosenberg

Mike Rosenberg said:
Another followup: My client's problem persists, but I've now heard from
three other people, all having the identical problem sending attachments
from Entourage 2001 with Comcast as their cable ISP. No one I know here
using Entourage 2001 with any other ISP is having this problem. Based
on this, we're set to demend that Comcast look into this rather than
blame the customers' computers.
Click to expand...

Final followup: One of the my clients has now had Comcast pay a visit.
Swapping out the cable modem resolved the problem. I seriously doubt
that anyone will ever apologize to my client for having put him through
this.
 
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