e-mail garbled

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A friend of mine claims that any e-mails I send him with anything more than just plain text is unreadable. He tried using and a Verizon account and G-Mail account with the same results. He is using Internet Explorer but I don’t know if it’s the latest version or is up to date. Others that I send the same e-mails to are not having a problem, only him. I’m telling him it’s a setting in IE, but he is not computer savvy and would not know what to look for. I will occasional get this problem if someone sends me a graphic through AOL, but only sometimes. I’m using Firefox as my browser and Time-Warner Roadrunner as my ISP. Can anybody suggest any specific fix for this? Thanks.

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It may be a problem on his PC, or it may be his email provider.
Can he open his mail via a web page? If so he can test it on another PC – yours maybe?
What email client does he use?
Does he have problems with mail from others?

cheers, Paul

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It appears he is using G-mail. And opening it as text only. Until I did some investigation I did not know G-mail required you to “download” graphic attachments and then choose a viewer to see them.

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You say he’s not very PC-savvy and he’s using IE. His PC may be infected with malware. Has he tried using something like MalwareBytes or SuperAntispyware to check for malware?

What sort of antivirus is he using? Is it up-to-date?

Could he try a different browser like Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome?

I know it’s a touchy subject, but many people are running pirated versions of Windows XP. These versions cannot get updates and are vulnerable to hijacking. Is his version of Windows legitimate and up-to-date? Which version of IE is he using?

Also, have him look at the very bottom of his Gmail page for “Gmail view”. Have him try older version and basic HTML.

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You say he’s not very PC-savvy and he’s using IE. His PC may be infected with malware. Has he tried using something like MalwareBytes or SuperAntispyware to check for malware?

What sort of antivirus is he using? Is it up-to-date?

Could he try a different browser like Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome?

I know it’s a touchy subject, but many people are running pirated versions of Windows XP. These versions cannot get updates and are vulnerable to hijacking. Is his version of Windows legitimate and up-to-date? Which version of IE is he using?

Also, have him look at the very bottom of his Gmail page for “Gmail view”. Have him try older version and basic HTML.

Hi Bill,

Thanks for commenting on this thread.

To answer your questions…Since this is my brother-in-law and he is out-of-town I’m not privy to all of the specifics except that he recently bought this computer retail with all software and Win 7 installed. Everything is legit. He would not and could not handle any software that was pirated. He does use an anti-virus program and an ant-maulware program but I don’t know which ones. This all started when he switched his e-mail from Verizon to G-mail. I was thinking of doing the same but now I have reservations. When I experimented with my G-mail account and sent myself attached graphics I ran into the same problem as he did. That’s when I did some investigation and learned that you must download attachments then view them in another program. Seems like a hassle to me. Anyway I’m waiting to hear back from him if my suggestions on downloading solved his problem. I also tried your suggestion of the “Gmail view” and using older version but it did not solve the problem or change the fact that downloading attachments seems to be the only solution with G-mail.

If I’m wrong I hope you or others will show me my error. Thanks.

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A little off subject, but after reading recently about Gmail hijacks and other problems with Gmail, I dumped my experimental Gmail. No thanks I will just continue with my Road Runner and Hotmail. I can access both through Windows Live Mail and everything works well. Sorry for getting slightly off topic, but still talking about Gmail.

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A little off subject, but after reading recently about Gmail hijacks and other problems with Gmail, I dumped my experimental Gmail. No thanks I will just continue with my Road Runner and Hotmail. I can access both through Windows Live Mail and everything works well. Sorry for getting slightly off topic, but still talking about Gmail.

Hey Ted,

I think I’m with you. My Roadrunner and Hotmail do just fine. My only beef with Roadrunner is that they limit you on the number of blocks you’re allowed, then you must pay for a premium service. They don’t really care about preventing spam. I also have a NetZero account that I use for junk mostly.

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