Theatre Lighting Design, Technical Direction and Consulting

Charles R. Kaiser
Aurora, Ontario CANADA

Stupid ISP decision of the year so far goes to. . .

aci.on.ca for no longer allowing their users to attach .zip files to outgoing emails! That's right, my ISP in their wisdom has decided that .zip files might be hiding nasty little viruses, so we can no longer attach them to our outgoing email!

When I called the tech support desk to ask how I was supposed to send multi-file compressed archives (otherwise known as zip archives) their suggestion was to "change the file extension!" Yeah! That's a STELLAR idea! That won't cause any problems at all!

Except maybe:

• Causing the recipient's anti-virus software to alert on the fact the the file content doesn't match the file extension.
• Having the attachment automatically deleted because the receiving server won't accept any attachment EXCEPT .zip files.
• The attachment gets deleted because the recipient didn't read your message about your having to change the file extension and then can't open the file, and then panics thinking their computer might be infected with a virus.
• etc. etc. etc. . .

Yep. GREAT idea aci.on.ca! A real winner. Who in the hell thought that one up? Let's keep our users from being able to use the industry standard file compression system as an email attachment. Then, when they call the tech support desk to complain, we can tell them it is for their protection!

Oh, by the way, they did all of this without bothering to tell anyone about it! One day I could send .zip files just fine. The next:

"Error: "Your email message was unable to be sent because your mail server rejected the message. 553-5.7.1 Your message has been refused due to content filtering rules" (1003,11)"

Thanks aci.on.ca! You've made my day.