posted on April 14, 2002 05:38:01 AM new
For the past few weeks, it has taken up to two days to get all of the End-of-Auction notices from eBay.
I asked them why. Here's part of their response:
We have been receiving emails from other members reporting the same
issue about not receiving emails from us in a timely manner, or at all
in some cases. We have located the source of this trouble and it is that
some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have recently started blocking
extended MIME formats. This was done in an attempt to protect their
users from viruses, as many recent viruses mimic mail programs. Our
email server uses this format, and has been blocked from many email ISP
mail servers in the ISPs attempt to protect themselves from viruses.
Please contact your ISP and request that eBay be put on their approved
list (sometimes called a trusted list). This way they will not block our
extended MIME formats.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you
for your patience and assistance!
So, apparently, "we are doing something that is obviously causing you a problem, you go out and fix it" is a good thing in America.
posted on April 14, 2002 06:37:06 AM new
eBay needs to go back to sending out EOAs in plain text. This MIME nonsense (and that's all it is) has caused no end of trouble.
posted on April 14, 2002 06:56:03 AM new
I've posted several questions (including the e-mail's content) on the Verizon TechSupport NewsGroup. I'm curious to know what responses I get from there.
Of course, I wonder (now) if AW uses a similar format for the WBNs and whether that's the reason so many winners don't get theirs...
posted on April 14, 2002 09:39:23 AM new
"Not everyone has a MIME-capable mail reader!"
This statement is false, for anyone who don't know MIME is the extention after the dot at the end of each file in your computer be it .html, .htm, .txt, .doc, .jpg and so on when ebay states in there letter that some ISP are blocking some mime extentions what they are saying is that like AOL is blocking mail sent from say microsoft out look with that extention.
They are doing this in hopes of perventing there user from picking up the e-mail worms that have been going around through email and sending them selfs to everyone on the users contact list.
all computers and mail programs are mime-capable since all email is basically just a file.
posted on April 14, 2002 11:11:09 AM new
"This statement is false."
Oh, really. You've truly impressed me with the depth of your knowledge here. Of course, what do I know, being a Unix system administrator? I've only had to keep email running on servers and workstations for the last 10 years.
Sending MIME-encapsulated email to someone who reads their mail on a terminal that only displays ASCII characters (and there are plenty of us still) is STUPID. It is NOT readable. Oh sure, the text of the message is in there somewhere absent the MIME cruft, but it will never be read. Older versions of AOL still in use do not support MIME.
I get 36k messages on my Unix account whose true content is a few lines. They get deleted unread. Anybody lame enough to send out this garbage doesn't deserve to have their message read.
posted on April 14, 2002 11:47:54 AM new
I will Show you how bogus the letter from ebay was, anyone with auction closed in at least the last 24 hours who list from auction watch will notice that there closed auction management is not updated either.
auction watch program can not get the closed item info either.
in any case I was not trying to impress anyone Unix system administrator or other wise, I describe mime in its simplest terms to be understandable by the least computer savvy user.
Since I have been running my own web and mail server right here for the past 7 years and have a fair understanding of Linux and Unix I am probably as qualified as any Thank you for letting me know that my posts and knowledge is not needed on this message board seems that you have things well in hand and know when ebay is spinning and not telling the whole story about a problem with there system .
just know that in it's simplest form mime is the extension ending of any file technically there is more to it but even the least computer savvy user knows if he don't have a text editor or viewer he cant view a file ending in .TXT and if they have no JPG viewer they can not view .jpg images.
I will go and post no more sorry to spoil your day..
Just know this about mime and what it means when ISPs start block some types when they block the .html or .htm mime you will no longer be able to view 100 percent of the internet
posted on April 14, 2002 07:25:04 PM new
anyone with auction closed in at least the last 24 hours who list from auction watch will notice that there closed auction management is not updated either.
*************************
My auction watch is updated..even the eoa notices that I haven't gotten (I've gotten most, but not all, with my aol)are correct in the ended auction area of AW (which is rather fast for them!). I talked with AOL, and they said it's not their problem..it's not blocked. I tend to agree since I have gotten 75% of my eoa's!
posted on April 15, 2002 04:06:45 AM new
dman3: Thanks for your input. However, I think it is worth noting that your statement:
<I>"even the least computer savvy user knows if he don't have a text editor or viewer he cant view a file ending in .TXT and if they have no JPG viewer they can not view .jpg images."</I>
is, I'm afraid, wildly optimistic. The least savvy computer user knows (usually) where the power switch is, and which little picture on the screen to double-click to start their program. That's all. The rest is trial and error. They know nothing whatever about file extensions or relationships.
posted on April 15, 2002 04:52:04 AM new
You don't have to wait to receive EOA notices from Ebay. Just check at the bottom of the page of items that you are selling for a list of your sold items.
posted on April 15, 2002 05:39:06 AM new
Thanks dorrie, I know that!
But I use Microsoft Outlook and Access to track this stuff.
When the e-mail comes in, I parse the text to get the auction ID, the winner's eBay ID and e-mail ID, the final amount of the auction and number of bids. This gets loaded into Access.
I then create a WBN (combined in almost all cases) that includes estimated shipping and insurance charges and send out the total.
For the past two weeks, I've had to copy and paste the information from the bottom of the eBay page into Access. It is mind-numbingly tedious (which is why I automated it in the first place).
posted on April 15, 2002 08:49:58 AM new
"" is, I'm afraid, wildly optimistic. The least savvy computer user knows (usually) where the power switch is, and which little picture on the screen to double-click to start their program. That's all. The rest is trial and error. They know nothing whatever about file extensions or relationships. ""
I think neither of you have ever met my father. I still get phone calls, "Okay son, I am sitting at my desk looking at that big box that looks like a TV Set, what do I do now..."
