BenPoisened
asked on
What is an 8 bit octet stream
I frequently encounter attachments or files which are listed as an 8 bit Octet Stream, what type of file are these and how do you access them?
ASKER
1 I don't use Win95, I use win 3.1, and just updated to netscape 3.
2 The file extension is 8bit Octet Stream nothing else, thats why I asked the question, it doesn't have an .exe, doc, or other file extension name, only that it is an 8bit Octet Stream, if it had a type of file extension listed I wouldn't wonder what it was, or how to open it.
2 The file extension is 8bit Octet Stream nothing else, thats why I asked the question, it doesn't have an .exe, doc, or other file extension name, only that it is an 8bit Octet Stream, if it had a type of file extension listed I wouldn't wonder what it was, or how to open it.
My answer will also cover Win 3.1 as well as win95, but you are right it does not answer the question. The place that you find this 8 bit octet reference, where is it? Is it a web page or are you finding this in a setting in Netscape?
Scott
Scott
ASKER
I'm usually finding it as a file on a couple of Web Sites, or as an attachment to E-Mail I recieve, Netscape has a Client association for it under applications but I don't know what to associte to open them.
You wouldn't happen to have one of those emails, or know of one of those web sites that you encountered this at? If you have an email you can send it to me at geigers@binghamton.edu.
Scott
Scott
please post the header (first few lines) and the end-sequence of one of your 8-bit-stream-attachment, I can tell you how to handle them
tabit
tabit
ASKER
That could be a problem, I just updated to Netscape 3, and when I did it deleated my mail folders where I would have had such information, but I'll check to see if I can Find one
(Thats actually how I found this place I was trying to find out how to reclaim my mail folders, some one recomended here)
Gil
(Thats actually how I found this place I was trying to find out how to reclaim my mail folders, some one recomended here)
Gil
You did not backup you personal data before upgrading your Netscape? not recommended. I also experienced (using N3 on a 3.11-Windows-System) that this flavor of Netscape seems to sometimes kill the bookmark-file. Backup your Netscape personal-data incl. the bokkmarks from time to time with normal usage, always for updates!
ASKER
I know, but then again I wasn't thinking at the time I got the Bookmarks back but not the mail folders.
As for my question, I think I found the answer but I was checking for responses to see if I was right?
Wanna know my thoughts on the subject???
As for my question, I think I found the answer but I was checking for responses to see if I was right?
Wanna know my thoughts on the subject???
go ahead, Ben
An 8-bit octet stream attachment is a binary attachment so it can cover about ANY filetype.You (or the sender) are probably using some old e-mail client otherwise the original filename would be known. Usually, unnamed 8-bit octet streams are pictures of nude women :), so you might try saving the attachment as GIF, JPG and/or BMP and see what happens. Tell the sender to send his attachments as MIMEfiles for a change.Good luck.
ASKER
Actually the 8 bit files I've been encountering appear to be word processors text files, such as WP 5.1 for dos, but I didn't have a reader such as acrobat so I couldn't find out what they were, because I couldn't open an octet file at all except from DOS which is where I found out the files in question were text.
Thanks for the input though.
Thanks for the input though.
If you consider your problem solved by yourself you have to ask experts-exchange to delete the question.
Otherwise I can assue you, that if you view any email file with attachment or any multipart-file with a text-editor (or hex-editor) in Dos you WILL find a header giving the filename, filetype (i.e. the extension) and the type of encoding (base46 or whatever) The trouble with WP51 is, that a lot of users give their own surnames to files (the UN in Genf did so, before I gave them training). So its sometimes a problem for some import-filters to recognize a file called africa38.ang (for Angola), because the programm generally searches for the txt-extension plus the file-header (header inside the file, saying it is a wp51-file not the attachment-header outside the file)
tabit
Otherwise I can assue you, that if you view any email file with attachment or any multipart-file with a text-editor (or hex-editor) in Dos you WILL find a header giving the filename, filetype (i.e. the extension) and the type of encoding (base46 or whatever) The trouble with WP51 is, that a lot of users give their own surnames to files (the UN in Genf did so, before I gave them training). So its sometimes a problem for some import-filters to recognize a file called africa38.ang (for Angola), because the programm generally searches for the txt-extension plus the file-header (header inside the file, saying it is a wp51-file not the attachment-header outside the file)
tabit
ASKER
I'm not viewing with any type of viewer whatsoerev, I found out through, Basic where I don't get any idea of a header or file type, extension, ect..., rather it is listed as an octet stream, In Netscape there is even a helper application listing for them, and I was trying to figure out exactley what they were, so that I could reffrence an application to my browser.
Ben can you post one of those files or can you direct us to the file. It would really help if we could see the file in question. Just looking at the file may give us some clue as how to proceed.
Scott
Scott
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Scott Geiger