Teacher
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21 Messages
How do I bring a server problem to AT&T's attention?
Today I discovered that a problem that started within the last two days is caused by AT&T/Yahoo?
When using a 3rd part mail client (in my case Thunderbird) to send email via the ATT server, the message is received with a set of ?? taking the place of the 2nd (and all following) consecutive spaces.
I've verified the problem stems from the AT&T/Yahoo server by sending test messages written in Thunderbird using another account that uses another server (in my case Just Host). Only AT&T causes the problem.
_xyzzy_
Expert
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15K Messages
6 years ago
I don't understand. Are you saying all embedded spaces on lines are shown as question marks?
I use TB and haven't seen anything like this.
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JeffLeites
Teacher
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21 Messages
6 years ago
Yes. It started a day or two ago. For instance, "a b c d e", is received by the recipient as " a b ??c ????d ??????e". If you send yourself an email from TB using the ATT server, I would think you would see it. There are several posts about it on the Mozilla Support page for TB. And I started a discussion about it on the mozillazine forum, where other TB users with AT&T have the same problem. See the link below.
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=3038519&p=14792882#p14792882
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_xyzzy_
Expert
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15K Messages
6 years ago
I did before replying above (i.e., sent an email with embedded spaces to myself). I cannot reproduce the problem. But I did read that thread you pointed to. I don't know why this problem is so selective.
Note, I do possibly agree with one of those posters speculating that yahoo doesn't want users to use email client apps. Not because of this problem but potentially because of this security announcement. I use an older version of TB (45.8.0) because anything later doesn't run on my version of the Mac OS. I don't think that's why I can't reproduce your problem but that security announcement may mean I (we?) need a new email service provider. TB supports Oauth2 for IMAP only (I prefer POP). But that announcement just says just Oauth, so it's not clear its Oauth1 or 2 (they are not compatible). If it's 1, forget it, we're all screwed. And if it's Oauth2 it remains to be seen whether TB is truly compatible. I asked @ATTCares about this. No reply. Apparently they don't care.
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JoeSeeley
Tutor
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4 Messages
6 years ago
It could be Windows 10 specific? I tested on both Thunderbird 56.2.0 and 59.0b1. Thanks for the quick response!
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_xyzzy_
Expert
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15K Messages
6 years ago
You should take a poll over in that mozillazine thread (since you started that thread) to see what OS's they are using.
If it isn't OS specific then maybe the reason I can't reproduce it is that something was changed in more current versions of TB that aren't in my older TB. Can't think of what but I just thought I toss that theory out there.
Update:
Have you considered reporting this problem to Bugzilla? Since I cannot reproduce it but others can (presumably on later TBs) I am not completely convinced it is server specific. Instead there may be something subtle in the protocol exchange that later TB's are now sensitive to, whatever it is, where it wasn't before. Alternatively, maybe it was some feature enhancement were hopefully they introduced an about:config switch to revert to the older behavior. All this is just speculation.
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thunderbird55
Contributor
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2 Messages
6 years ago
I have the same problem, I am using windows 7 and the latest version of thunderbird. it only occurs in emails sent from our att.net account
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JeffLeites
Teacher
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21 Messages
6 years ago
Workaround or fix(?).
Got this tidbit from the Mozilla Support Forum -
Change mail.strictly_meme to TRUE
(For newbies - Tools, Options, Advanced, General, Config Editor).
Seems to work.
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lem3
Guru
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498 Messages
6 years ago
Small typo. That should be
mail.strictly.mime should be set to TRUE
Note this introduces considerable overhead in the send process and is just a workaround.
There is a long discussion in the Thunderbird bug forum where developers are trying to decide how to address the Yahoo SMTP mis-configuration that is causing the problem described here:
https://www.limilabs.com/blog/yahoo-smtp-8-bitmime-bug
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_xyzzy_
Expert
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15K Messages
6 years ago
According to what I read here it's spelled mail.strictly_mime (underscore not period).
Interesting problem due to yet more "quality" yahoo email programming...not! Still don't know why it doesn't affect me though since mail.strictly_mime is true in my config.
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JoeSeeley
Tutor
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4 Messages
6 years ago
Looks like whatever the problem was, AT&T fixed it. No more ?? in either my or wife's emails as of this afternoon.
Thanks for staying on top of this xyzzy! Also like you name, I love Zork and text adventures too!
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