[thelist] file extension list

Joshua Olson joshua at waetech.com
Mon Apr 8 08:39:01 CDT 2002


----- Original Message -----
From: "Erik Mattheis" <gozz at gozz.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2002 11:47 PM
Subject: [thelist] file extension list


> I'm wanting to prevent potentially harmful files from being sent as
> attachments to a list, I wish to do it by disallowing files with
> particular extensions to be distributed ... google found this:
>
> http://www.microeye.com/zipout/specifying_blocked_files_types.htm
>
> Anything that should be added? Anything that doesn't need to be there?

Erik,

That seems like a pretty good list so far.  There are other file types that
I would feel necessary to disallow as attachments to a public list.  I don't
think I'd approach the scenario from the angle of what to disallow.  Rather,
I'd make a list of acceptable file types.  For example:

txt, gif, jpg, png, doc, xls, eml, etc...

The list could grow quite long, but not as long as the possible list of
excludable file types.  And, only allowing certain file types would
invariably make the attachments more useful.  For example, disallowing .art
files (in lieu of .gif, .jpeg, .png, or even .psd) would give a greater
percentage of audience a chance to enjoy the attachment.  While this not the
only example, if give the basic premise of the reasoning.  You could extend
this logic to only allow certain file extensions on certain lists.  For
example, a list about PhotoShop may only allow those files that are
PhotoShop related (cursors, brushes, actions, templates, etc), and a list
about ASP may only allow IIS/ASP related extensions.

Make sense?

-joshua





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