NHSNet and other X.400 mail programmes change the extensions of attached files to .att or .dat. For those of us who are used to just clicking on a file attachment and having it open by the associated application this is a step in to the dark ages.
At best you have to save the file and rename it with the right extension. This is terribly tedious. However, the fun really starts when you don't know what the file format is. The NHS IMC recently sent a number of doc files out. What they didn't tell us was that they were zipped up in a .zip. In the primitive world of the Internet the file extension would have given the game away and a mouse click would have unzipped them. However, in the sophisticated world of X.400 (not in this case via NHSNet) this vital clue was removed and many of us were left wondering why we could read the file even after we had renamed it to .doc.
The good news however form NHS TB is that they intend to change (if they haven't already done it) the NHSNet MMHS so it leaves file extensions alone.
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Ewan Davis
AAH Meditel - Voice +44 (1) 527 579414 Fax +44(1)527 837287
Email [log in to unmask] also at [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Trefor Roscoe [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 1998 11:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: NHS Net outage due to 50MByte file attachment?
Not due to anything I understand about x400.
Trefor
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask]
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Chris Burton
> Sent: 10 September 1998 07:23
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: RE: NHS Net outage due to 50MByte file attachment?
>
>
> This surfaced on Scot-GP this week as, a year after introducing NHS
> networking, some of us are starting to use it a bit. Apparently
> it's an x400
> thingy to do with changing file names for safe transit and
> security. So now
> messages need to say what format att00999.dat started life as.
> Bet we always
> remember to do that then.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [log in to unmask]
> > [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Paul Galloway
> > Sent: 09 September 1998 13:32
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: NHS Net outage due to 50MByte file attachment?
> >
> >
> > I am used to receiving files from NHSnet called ATT00118.DAT etc.
> > Usually I
> > just rename them as .doc and they open fine. Still a crap advert for the
> > skills of the network managers as its been well over a year.
> >
> > Sent a word file to the HA last week, NHSgateway stripped off the
> > attachment. Had to fax it :-(
> >
> > So NHSnet . Features :-
> >
> > Pay per message
> > Pay for volume
> > Security concept that is going to blow whats left of patient
> > confidentiality
> > out of the water
> > No 24/7 support line
> > Difficult and arcane process to get connected,
> > Doing such a great job of marketing itself that I have yet to
> receive any
> > literature from them
> >
> > Gets my vote every time. Lets hope for more guidance in the Autumn :-)
> >
> > Paul Galloway
> >
> >
>
>
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