-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Thu August 12 2004 18:57, Malke Routh wrote:
On Thu, 2004-08-12 at 16:17, Anders Johansson wrote:
On Thursday 12 August 2004 21:03, Malke Routh wrote:
On Thu, 2004-08-12 at 11:43, James Hatridge wrote:
Hi all...
My wife got a M$ dat file in an email. Can someone tell me how to open it? Thanks, JIM -- Jim Hatridge
*.dat files can come from lots of different applications. They are not meant to be opened.
huh?
In Windows, .dat files are just that - data files that belong to various programs. Very often - in Windows - .dat files are associated with spyware and other malware. You didn't specify whether your wife got this on a Windows or Linux machine. Certainly there's nothing to worry about on Linux. In Windows that is another story.
Either contact the person who sent the email and ask them what they were doing or just delete it. If you wife is using a Windows operating system, she should definitely delete it.
Sillyness based on ignorance.
Thank you for the nice comment. Not silliness, not based on ignorance. Based on that supporting Windows systems is what I do, with a specialty in cleaning up infected PC's. At which I am quite expert and actually know what I'm talking about.
Again, if your wife has a Linux system there is nothing to worry about. If she has a Windows system and is running with default settings, she has no idea what that file is. Many Windows users get mysterious emails with .dat files as attachments. They are usually viral, malware at the very least.
One shouldn't *run* attached exe files
There are many other extensions besides *.exe files that are actually executables in Windows.
, or blindly click on them in case they are concealed executables, but just deleting them on some "eeek, it's on my system, I've been infected" reasoning is just silly. Like you said, a dat file can be anything, including a valid email from an outlook user. Finding out what it is is the first step
Yes, finding out what it is - as I suggested - is a good idea - *if* you can contact the person who sent it; i.e., the sender is someone you know. However, in Windows, .dat files are usually nothing you would normally send to anyone. If your wife is running Windows, sure - let her follow your "oh don't be silly" advice. She should make sure she has a current antivirus using updated definitions and scan for spyware afterwards.
Malke
The .dat in the form the original poster is referring to is a format used in old, and now essentially defunct, M$ mailer servers. I have a friend that sends these out all the time from his work - their M$ mailer server is circa 98 NT something or other I believe. Even my M$ only using friends have problems with this format. From what I gather it was some attempt by M$ to combine various doc formats into one - used for corporate communiques that would have embedded charts, stats, yada yada. But the format was wrought with problems and yes much spyware used the .dat format. Also I did hear mention that the spyware and corporate mailing thing M$ was trying led to a series of problems related to corporate espionage and this was another reason it was dumped - not to mention the DAT as in digital audio tape formats and others conflicted in the market - or some such nonsense. Seems there's not a lot of info to be found about this format which leads me to believe M$ wanted to obfiscate any further proliferation of this format. Suffice to say, whether any of these ideas/theories are correct, who ever is sending these is do so from a fairly old corporate system. Cheers, Curtis. - -- Spammers Beware: Tresspassers will be shot, survivors will be shot again! Warning: Individuals throwing objects at the crocodiles will be asked to retrieve them! If pro is the opposite of con, then the opposite of progress must be congress! In the Ocean it's called salvage, on land it's called grave robbing! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFBHsPc7CQBg4DqqCwRAm0+AJ9SKT1Z3d3TLOq0hNqJMv4dCzZwmACdHJkl x9J+HlPqBrcLGWLhAa6BSPE= =aWqy -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----