Pete, No, my post and this reply have a plain text format. Both plain text and rich text format can have live links for non-AOL recipients. With the most common email programs like MS Outlook, text in plain text or rich text messages that begins with http:// or Mailto:// is treated as a URL. HTML Anchor tags like <A href="http://" > http:// </a> create live links in HTML format email. MS Outlook users can determine a message's format by clicking Format on the standard toolbar. To set your default message format, from the MS Inbox page click Tools | Options | then click the Mail Format tab and select a default mail format. Here is a summary of email formats written by a friend: "- Plain Text is perhaps the most straightforward (and safest) format to use for messages. If there's a downside, it's that you can't format messages (use different fonts, colors, paragraph spacing, etc.). Using plain text, however, will assure you that almost anybody can read your messages, using any email client. - Rich Text is the standard Exchange format (i.e., if you're using Corporate/Workgroup Outlook as a client for Exchange) and it will allow you to use formatting of fonts, colors, etc. Rich Text is also necessary if you share NetFolders, at least for the individuals you're sharing with. Some folks just make it their default format (Tools/Options, choose Mail Format tab and then select Microsoft Outlook Rich Text format from the drop-down box) while others may use Plain Text and mark specific contacts in their Contacts folder to ensure that all messages to that particular contact are sent in Rich Text. - HTML is the one that allows all the bells and whistles of *pretty* email messages and many newsletters use this format (LockerGnome, CNET, etc.). Yep, it's slick, but there are some issues to consider: 1) not all email clients may be able to read the HTML message as you intended; 2) HTML greatly increases the size of the message so downloads take longer and it seems to take longer to open them in Outlook 2000 even after the download; and 3) security folks are concerned that viruses can be transmitted via HTML messages. So, what's the best thing for you? - Consider setting your default message format as Plain or Rich Text rather than HTML. If you really need (or want) the formatting capabilities of HTML, then you can certainly use it in isolated instances but you might want to consider the recipients (can they read it? will the download be onerous for them?). - When you're subscribing to various newsletters, think about whether you want to get the Text or HTML versions (many of them provide the option). Is the benefit worth the download/opening time? It may well be. . .it's just something that I hadn't thought about when I was subscribing in the past." Jim -----Original Message----- From: LISTSERV list owners' forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Pete Weiss Sent: Monday, May 28, 2001 10:38 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: HTML posts make LISTSERV lists a soft target for hackers Jim: Does that mean that your/this message to this list would be unreadable? ;-) /Pete At 13:28 05/27/2001 Sunday, Jim Walker wrote: >It has been known for some time that email in HTML format can be used to >execute arbitrary programs on the recipient's computer. > > http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2000-12.html> > >http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/sirc/incorrect.mime.header.vulnerability.h tml