cryptic e-mail message

Factual Questions
1

I am relatively new to the world of computers and e-mail, so I’m sure someone out there will know way more about this than I do.

Sometimes (rarely, but enough to notice), when I send an e-mail, the other person merely receives a two-character message that looks like a “y” with an umlaut over it, followed by a strange-looking “p” with an elongated top. It doesn’t matter what I send, it ends up looking like that. Like I said, it rarely happens, but it just did again last night, and I was just wondering if there’s something wrong with the program (Outlook Express) or what.

ÿþ – this is what it looks like, by the way…

2

Usually you see something like that when you try to open executable files in a text editor. Don’t know if this helps, I can’t see how an email would end up like that. It’s probably the software you’re sending it with.

3

It would help us answer your question if we had more technical details, like what kind of computer you have, what e-mail software you’re using (besides Outlook Express), what Internet browser you’re using (Internet Explorer or Netscape or “other”), who your Internet service provider is (AOL, Juno, who?), what e-mail service you’re using, and stuff like that.

Also, do the e-mails that you send that it does this with, have attachments or pictures with them, or is it just plain text? And, how do you find out that the other person only received a two-character blip? Do the people who received the blip have anything in common, such as ISP or e-mail software?

If this thread disappears quickly to page 3, Nineiron, you may safely assume that you’ve uncovered a Brand New Glitch, that nobody here knows how to fix it, and that you are on your own.

My WAG as to the problem would be something to do with your sending process, such as, you think you’re sending what’s in the window, but you actually have nothing in there, that it’s in the wrong place. I’m not explaining this very well. Maybe you’ve clicked on “Send Mail” but what was actually in the Outbox was nothing, or maybe just the first 2 characters of the header, and so Outlook Express does the best it can with the material it’s given, and the two weirdo characters (they look like Greek letters to me) are Outlook Express’s personal error message saying, “You thought I had an e-mail message in here but I don’t, but I’ll send what I have.”

You say you’re new to computers and e-mail? So is my mom. I would say, get out the Outlook Express manual and go over Basic E-Mail procedures, just to be sure you’re not doing something dumb and obvious. The problem usually stems from the fact that computer programmers use words like “import” and “export” and “default” in ways that normal English-speaking people don’t, so it can be very confusing. There is also frequently a problem with the concept of the difference between “Save” and “Save As”, which has caused a lot of the trouble in the world. You can think you’ve saved it, but you really haven’t, because it’s still set on “Save As” from that OTHER task you’re doing at the same time, and what you just did was Save it to Drive A.