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Blocking attachments 1
- Thread starter Stiddy
- Start date
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1
- #2
The problem is caused by Outlook security blocked suspicious attachments. That does not mean all the attachments you send have the potential to be a ticking time bomb (actually it can, but you need to do some "independent research" on it). In MS Word documents, certain MACRO viruses (or virii) can hide inside them, so ASU IT has set up a filter to block certain file types (such as .vbs, .doc, .exe and etc). Therefore in this case, even though the sender thought attachment has gone out, but the receiver would not get the attachment. Of course the security filter on the receiver end has to participate in this as well.
If you really think this would be a hassle, you can get rid of the security feature in Outlook altogether:
By default, Outlook (part of MS Office) won't allow you send or receive certain types of attachments. The rationale is that these documents can contain viruses or other harmful code, but the fact that Outlook doesn't let you disable or at least customize this feature is just plain stupid. Here's how to do it:
1. Open the Registry Editor (type "regedit" at Run in Start Menu) .
2. Expand the branches to
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Sec urity"
3. Create a new string value by selecting New and then String Value from the Edit menu.
4. Name the new value "Level1Remove".
5. Double-click the new "Level1Remove" to edit it, and enter the filename extensions you'd like to stop Outlook from blocking. Extensions should be typed in lower case, without the dots (.), and separated by semicolons (
. For example, type "exe;mdb;vbs" to allow .exe, .mdb, and .vbs attachments, respectfully.
6. Click Ok and then close the Registry Editor when you're done. You may have to restart Outlook for this change to take effect.
Note: I shouldn't have to tell you that this means you'll now be able to receive EXE files and other potentially harmful file types over email. Even though the majority of viruses are actually contained in Word documents (.doc files), you'll want to exercise some caution when opening any EXE files you subsequently receive.
If you really think this would be a hassle, you can get rid of the security feature in Outlook altogether:
By default, Outlook (part of MS Office) won't allow you send or receive certain types of attachments. The rationale is that these documents can contain viruses or other harmful code, but the fact that Outlook doesn't let you disable or at least customize this feature is just plain stupid. Here's how to do it:
1. Open the Registry Editor (type "regedit" at Run in Start Menu) .
2. Expand the branches to
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Sec urity"
3. Create a new string value by selecting New and then String Value from the Edit menu.
4. Name the new value "Level1Remove".
5. Double-click the new "Level1Remove" to edit it, and enter the filename extensions you'd like to stop Outlook from blocking. Extensions should be typed in lower case, without the dots (.), and separated by semicolons (
. For example, type "exe;mdb;vbs" to allow .exe, .mdb, and .vbs attachments, respectfully. 6. Click Ok and then close the Registry Editor when you're done. You may have to restart Outlook for this change to take effect.
Note: I shouldn't have to tell you that this means you'll now be able to receive EXE files and other potentially harmful file types over email. Even though the majority of viruses are actually contained in Word documents (.doc files), you'll want to exercise some caution when opening any EXE files you subsequently receive.
- Thread starter
- #3
bigdog92,
Thanks you for your timely and well thought out response. I have been searching my exchange server high and low looking for some setting that does this, thinking that the privious admin might have set it up. My problem is that myself and the rest of our engineering department send each other batch files, exe's, perl scripts, and other programs. So far I guess we have been fooling outlook by renaming these programs to .txt files. So I guess, for the certain individuals that need to send these programs whom are trusted fellow enginees, we will use your suggestion and modify outlook. Thanks for your time and effort.....Star for you.
Thanks you for your timely and well thought out response. I have been searching my exchange server high and low looking for some setting that does this, thinking that the privious admin might have set it up. My problem is that myself and the rest of our engineering department send each other batch files, exe's, perl scripts, and other programs. So far I guess we have been fooling outlook by renaming these programs to .txt files. So I guess, for the certain individuals that need to send these programs whom are trusted fellow enginees, we will use your suggestion and modify outlook. Thanks for your time and effort.....Star for you.
Why not zip files? All you have to do is block out the mainly bad attachments (bat,exe,vbs,shs,hta to name a few..) and tell you engineering guys to send exch other zip files to bypass the extension filter. On my Groupshield I filter all bad attachments (know virus carriers) then if I have a user who wants to send a bat file I tell them to zip it up then send to the user. Groupshield will still scan the attachment by opening the zip file but not block it because the orginal file name is a .zip.
Just my 0.02 worth
Just my 0.02 worth
Waidesworld
Technical User
I have experienced this twice in the last week but by telling my sender to zip the files we haven't had any issues and I prefer to keep this option turned on anyway.
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