# Solved: Incoming email unreadable coding.



## PeaceFool (Oct 3, 2005)

Some of my incoming emails have been nothing but completely unreadable code. Naturally it only happens with actual mail that I care about, not the junk mail. I am using Windows XP Home, and use Knology as my ISP. The emails in question are all coming from University-based addresses, and so im curious if that might play a role. Are there any translators available for free that I could copy the coding into and get something readable out of? Many of those emails are of personal importance.


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## sekirt (Mar 28, 2003)

What do you use to access your emails?
Web based (like Yahoo!)? POP3 (like Outlook Express)? AOL? Other?

sekirt


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## PeaceFool (Oct 3, 2005)

web based i suppose. I log in through my ISP's home site, and they provide me with an email address, and if i want it, a home page and server space.


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## sekirt (Mar 28, 2003)

It sounds like HTML/RTF (rich text format). The other possibility is a Word file.

Since it is your ISPs site, you might be able to get help from them. Otherwise, I think you have to contact the people sending these emails and tell them to send you plain text. Which *any* email client can read.

For the existing ones, I can give you a possible way to read them but it will take some effort on your part. This will only work if it is in HTML format, not a Word file.

1) Copy the email. Paste it into Notepad.
2) Name it whatever.htm. You can use whatever name you want but the extension has to be .htm.
3) Use Save As... and place it in a folder.
4) Open Internet Explorer. IE->File->Open. Then browse to where you saved the .htm file. OK your way out. It should then appear in IE.

sekirt


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## PeaceFool (Oct 3, 2005)

After trying the steps you gave me, all that happened was the same coding popped up in a text document file. Are there any programs that can do it, or useful sites that might teach me how to go about translating? How can I tell if it is RTF or just a Word file? Typically my email is able to receive everything, so I just dont understand why this is occurring to begin with.


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## sekirt (Mar 28, 2003)

Try copying and pasting a partial email here. If there is sensitive material, add some "xxx" so it doesn't reveal anything. Same for any email address that shows.



> the same coding popped up in a text document file.


 I hope your choice of words was accidental. You can't have a _document_ file. In Notepad, if it is HTML, it will look just like the email. Then once you run it in IE, it should appear as readable text. The "program" that runs HTML is IE.

Again, contacting your ISP might help.

sekirt


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## PeaceFool (Oct 3, 2005)

yea, my mistake in wording. basically it all looks like this, even after i copy it into notepad and save as .htm. and open in IE. 

TGFzdCBuaWdodCB3YXMgcmVhbGx5IGNyYXxxxp5IHRvIHNheSB0aGUgbGVhc3QuIEkgdGhvdWdodCBh
Ym91dCB5b3UgbW9yZSB0aGFuIG9uY2UgbGFzdCBuaWdodC4gSSB3YXMgVC1yYXxxNoZWQuIEFuZCBu

appreciate the help by the way, seems you sleep about as much as i do.


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## sekirt (Mar 28, 2003)

I have seen spam that looks like that but you say these are emails from known sources. If that is what the email looks like throughout, I am not certain. A Word file would have characters that resemble squares and whatnot in addition to other unreadable characters.

Was there ever a time that emails came in from the same source that were readable? You might still contact the people that sent these, find out how they compose the emails. 

sekirt


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## PeaceFool (Oct 3, 2005)

thanks for the help mate. looks like it'll just have to be a mystery. my isp is useless of course. but appreciate the effort nonetheless.


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## WhitPhil (Oct 4, 2000)

It sounds like it may be UUENCODE'd mail.

Do you happen to have WinZip installed? Or any other zip program like WinRar, etc.

Otherwise I keep looking for a way to decode them.


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## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

Universities seem to have a penchant for UUENCODE, would bet on that being the case.


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## sekirt (Mar 28, 2003)

Hi WhitPhil and kiwiguy

So then web mail cannot decipher UUENCODE? If that is the same coding as images, it works on those? Why would it come in the message area? I've seen attachments that had to be decoded. Still strange, seems like there would be a lot of complaints.

Hi PeaceFool
This decoder might be able to handle it. Go down this page until you come to Fastcode32. Freeware.
http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/comm/fwmiscmail.html

Let us know how it turns out.

sekirt


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## PeaceFool (Oct 3, 2005)

Hey thanks. That worked with all but one of them. I really appreciate it. Didnt expect to actually find a solution, so again my thanks.


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## sekirt (Mar 28, 2003)

Once we got help identifying it, from WhitPhil and kiwiguy, the rest was easy.  

Glad it worked for you.


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## WhitPhil (Oct 4, 2000)

sekirt:

Thanks for tracking down that decoder. 

The other "trick" (if I remember correctly), if you have Winzip, etc installed, is to copy/paste the UUENCODEd text into a TXT file, rename it to an extension of UUE and then open it with the Zip app, which has the smarts to decode it.


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