WMcD Posted May 22, 2002 Share Posted May 22, 2002 I need the combined wisdom of the forum. A buddy at the office has a Hotmail e-mail address. He used my office computer to access his account last week. One of five incoming mails showed up, not in Roman letters (our alphabet), but rather in box drawing characters. A mystery. Another fellow claimed the copying these into a word processing program would reveal the message. I did copy into WordPerfect and, wonders, the clear text came out. I chalked it up as a mystery of the Internet. However, today I used the same computer to try to post a message into this forum. As I typed, all the resulting text on the screen was box drawing characters. Typing into Outlook Express works okay, as does my word processor. Rebooting didn't help. Things seem to be set to Western Character set. Any ideas? Help. Help. Help. Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOUNDJUNKIE Posted May 22, 2002 Share Posted May 22, 2002 Ah, crude email encryption, eh? Sounds like your email character(text) preferences has been changed. Your buddy got something to hide??????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted May 22, 2002 Share Posted May 22, 2002 That MAY have been some sort of macro virus but I cannot state that categorically. Post back with the text of the message after it had been run through a word processor. I have an idea of what is going on but will wait to see your response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted May 23, 2002 Author Share Posted May 23, 2002 This is text just typing into the reply window. I can put in my user name and password with no problem. There may be spelling errors here because I'm just typing blindly. Regards, Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted May 23, 2002 Author Share Posted May 23, 2002 Even though the above is clear when I look at it on the forum, as I type it into the window it is just box drawing characters. Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 If your default font is set to something that is not installed on your PC, you'll get little square boxes instead of characters. ------------------ Music is art Audio is engineering Ray's Music System Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 Have you run a virus scan?? It sounds as if you are calling for a font that you do not have on your system and the characters are being represented by these little boxes. My concern about the possibility of a virus is simply that this occurred after an email was opened but offhand I am not aware of any virus that behaves in that manner. Open your browser and go to:(This assumes you are using Internet Explorer) Tools>Options>General Tab>Fonts and check to see what is selected in there. ------------------ It is meet to recall that the Great Green Heron rarely flies upside down in the moonlight - (Foo Ling ca.1900) This message has been edited by lynnm on 05-23-2002 at 12:14 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluless Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 Will, Hopefully, you've solved your problem...if not What hardware/operating system/browser are you running? On my computer at work, running on an Intel platform with windows 2000, I found no less than 5 ways where my font/keyboard/language settings could be changed (and I didn't spend alot of time). Regardless, I would first ask your buddy if he deliberately did anything. Secondly, according to your description, it is only your internet browser that gives you grief...if so re-install it if you can. I also beleive that there was a post on this same item on this BB (unless I suffered, yet another mental abberration) and lucky for you I've only been cruising the boards for a couple of months. Next,assuming that you are on an Windows Platform, Look at Control Panel-Keyboard and check to see if the Locale settings make sense. Look at the Control Panel - Internet Options check these out also. Look at Control Panel - Fonts, and check out what is set here also. As lynnm pointed out - Internet Explorer has a means of setting Fonts and languages as does Netscape as does AOL...as does...probably every internet provider. Also, there used to be a way by just typing in a small set of control characters that allow a reset of the keyboard, not just a single keystroke, but it would effectively change the keyboard configuration. Now if you are running on a unix OS, I think the keyboard configuration is generally set via an environment variable LOCALE that is established during boot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted May 28, 2002 Author Share Posted May 28, 2002 Lynnm was right on the money. And cluless too in a way. I found that the selection for general default text was set to WP boxdraw characters. I have no idea how WP boxdraw characters could have gotten into the otherwise "latin" list (other than in conjunction with WordPerfect). I have no idea how the setting got switched to that. Many thanks! Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted May 28, 2002 Share Posted May 28, 2002 "Lynnm was right on the money. And cluless too in a way." I am not clueless .... perhaps a little bemused betimes. ....Sorry couldn't resist No offense taken cluless I hope! ------------------ It is meet to recall that the Great Green Heron rarely flies upside down in the moonlight - (Foo Ling ca.1900) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluless Posted May 28, 2002 Share Posted May 28, 2002 LOL..Lnnmmnnmn (are those m-s or n-s?) Perpetually cluless here.. Will- Glad you're up and running again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted May 28, 2002 Share Posted May 28, 2002 "LOL..Lnnmmnnmn (are those m-s or n-s?) Perpetually cluless here.." Bifocals might help a little Unless you are as far gone as me in which it's trifocals and hearing aids on both sides. My wife says that watching me get ready for work these days is not so much like watching preparation as viewing reconstruction. Yeah........Like She ain't showing any mileage after 39 1/2 years!! We're going to celebrate our 40th in Puerto Vallarta on February 23, 2003. - (Unsolicited,Irrelevant Plug) - unless of course I continue to get unpeeled grapes in my lunch!! -Danged Steinem clonz! ------------------ It is meet to recall that the Great Green Heron rarely flies upside down in the moonlight - (Foo Ling ca.1900) This message has been edited by lynnm on 05-28-2002 at 10:53 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted May 28, 2002 Author Share Posted May 28, 2002 I see Ray was on the right track too. Thanks again. Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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