Red "X"s In E-mail's

One of the most frequent questions I hear is: "Why do email messages I receive, which are supposed to include a picture, often arrive with a red X in a white box instead of a picture?" There are many reasons for this; here are the main ones: Most viruses are sent as email attachments — and many of these viruses are embedded in images, or are named to look like image files. Consequently, many ISPs (Internet Service Providers) block all attachments, and require you to click on something that says it's OK to accept them. If the attachment happens to be a picture that was suppossed to be included in the body of an email, a small white box with a red X will appear instead. Outlook Express comes with a default setting that blocks email attachments from being opened or downloaded. This can be overcome by clicking on Tools>Options>Security, and unchecking "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus." You also need to have "Block images and other

external content in HTML email" unchecked.Having done this, however, you are admonished to be very, very careful about downloading or opening any attachment that you are not expecting or that you did not ask for. If the email is one of those cute greeting cards or inspirational messages that has an animated graphic with each paragraph, it was professionally prepared as an HTML document that should look the same to anyone who receives it.