A number of people have reported problems receiving RST files via EMail. There are two flavors of problems that I've noticed. One is fixable using PKZIPFIX and is quite common to AOL users, at all stages of the game. The other is a bit more serious in that PKZIPFIX can't fix it, and tends to be later in the game, when the RST files start getting larger.

There is another problem that appears related to some versions of Internet Explorer.

The fixable problem appears to be due to AOL dropping the last byte of the ZIP file when it gets received. Why, I don't really know, but I've heard that AOL checks for viruses in all attachments... which implies that the atachment is decoded and unzipped. It could be that it is not being correctly re-encoded???

The second, more severe problem seems to relate only to larger RST files and may relate to EMail size limits at some server sites. Some server between Robo and the destination is truncating the longer EMail messages.

The following are responses I received when I asked AOL users for help in receiving files at AOL addresses:

Hi Don,
Switched to Netscape Communicator 4.04. All is well. Farewell to IE 3.xx!!!!!!
Thank you for your infinite patience. Sorry to have run you aground on this issue.

Sincerely,
Jim
Hi Don

From time to time I have trouble with rst from robo and from auto troll on aol. Sometimes I can run pkfix. Sometimes not. Seems the most trouble occurs when packet size get larger. There was a posting by aol that they had not upgraded to the newest pkzip versions. I suspect that has something to do with it. Prior to the newest pkzip version I did not have problems. I also suspect that aol is monitering packets in some way and since they do not have new pkzip version, they corrupt them. Perhaps looking for virus or junk mail. Understand that this is just a suspicion. I have no idea why I have so much trouble. Every auto troll packet is corrupted when I get it. Yet if I pull it off netcom, my second account, there is no problem. If I can be of assistance, let me know.

wyvern

Hi Don!

Although I also receive the RSTs in a damaged ZIP file I have no problems unpacking them; I just put PKZIPFIX in my unpack-batch and it always worked.

I think that this is at least a provisional solution for AOL-players.

Bye, J'rg

Hi Don!

I'm the one who just wrote you that with PKZIPFIX I have no problems unpacking the RSTs I received from AOL. Now I have :-(. I don't know why, but suddenly I can't unpack them in any way.

Bye, J'rg

Don,

For the past couple of weeks, I have noticed that my results have been coming through OK. I have been able to download them without any problem.

HOWEVER, all of the shadows have had their files corrupted, and I haven't been able to download one of them. Even when my partners forward me their results, the corruption is still there. I thought you might want to know what is going on. I still tap the FTP site every time I see a result coming in by E-Mail, just to make sure that I get it without having to log back on again.

HORSEFACE

Hi......

I am playing game 270 right now and receiving my RST via AOL. I can always unpack my zip file using PKZIPFIX and it is fine. I think there is something at the leading edge of the ZIP description that keeps PKUNZIP from decompressing the file. This sort of thing happens all the time and that is why Katz wrote PKZIPFIX to take care of the problem.

I would advise any other player getting a 'corrupt zip' message to try unzipping with PKZIPFIX instead of PKUNZIP and this will keep you from having to deal with the isolated "bad" or so called "corrupt" files. For the player not familiar with PKZIPFIX, you should remind them the resulting file from a PKZIPFIX operation is PKZIPFIX.ZIP and this would be the file they should then unzip using PKUNZIP. I just threw the whole thing into a BAT file put it in my VPWORK directory and run it at the time I download your ZIP file. I have attached an example of the BAT and you can pass it on if you like as a possible fix.

Dwalin 

path d:\pkware
pkzipfix g270p7.zip
pkunzip pkfixed
Regarding your email about AOL.

I do not use AOL, but I think that AOL uses some special version of decoding that is built into their software. A good place to start is to ask a tech support person for AOL. Maybe this would be a good place to start. I hope this will help.

Scott

Don
I had no problem with my files when the files were small. Around turn 30 or so...
After that i had to Download from your FTP site. Aol has an E-Mail file size limit when transfering from one internet provider to anouther..
Don,
As far as my RST's go, about 90% of the time my own RST is fine but my shadow RST comes through as invalid 90% of the time. Any time I download directly from FTP they're fine, though.

Rob-Audiokat

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