.dat files in email

Every once in a while, I get an email from Classmates.com telling me about new members that have registered there. When I used to use IE to check my mail online, the emails opened up automatically, but with Firefox/Mozilla, all that shows up is an icon that says "file ". When I click on the paper clip icon, I get a pop-up giving me the option of opening the file or saving it to disk -- either way, I have to tell the computer what program to use in order to open the file (which shows up "untitled.dat ").
Is there a setting in Firefox that I can change so that the message is displayed as text when I check my mail?
Any idea what program I would use to open a .dat file?
Thank you!

 

Hi rebecca,

Are you using Mozilla for your email, and Firefox as your browser?

Ramona

 

.dat file email

I'm using my ISP mailbox for my email, but accessing the internet with Firefox/Mozilla (I think there was an option to only download Firefox at the Mozilla.org sit, in which case, that's all I downloaded).

 

There is a difference between (Mozilla)Firefox, which is browser only, like Internet Explorer, and Mozilla, which is suite containing a mail client.
You cannot set up mail in Firefox, so I am a bit puzzled about where you get the e-mail. Is it on your ISP website? There is a standalone mail client, still in the works, called Thunderbird, but there should not be any difficulty in setting up mail in Mozilla.
My wife, supposedly, gets her announcements through AOL mail, but I have no idea if she ever saw anything. I can't do anything about it now, since the messages have been dumped. So, I don't know if there is a special format to the mail.
I have done some test where I renamed the .dat to .txt files, and after many threat from Microsoft, opened with Mozilla. Firefox is not listed. I think that you should try to get your announcements more conventionally.

 

Yes, I was trying to look at my email on my ISP website, and I've only downloaded Firefox. I can still see the emails fine when I download them using Outlook Express, I was just wondering (for the sake of my own enlightenment in the matter of computers/internet) if there was a solution to my problem with viewing the emails online.
Guess I'll just stick with Outlook Express for my mail -- it's only when I'm on the road, using other people's computers to access my mail, that viewing my email online really matters (and obviously nothing from classmates.com would ever be of critical importance anyway!).
Thanks for your help!
Rebecca

 

All I can say is that your ISP webmail must be using the .dat extention, which would not be necessary in a regular mail set up.
My ISP Webmail opens identically in any browser, so it seems to me something unrelated to your program, other than firefox is not IE. Most ISP will support only the Microsoft products these days.
It would not be automatic, but you should be able to read the file, directly with Wordpad (right click on shorctcut|Open, select Wordpad

 

YES!! Opening the file with Wordpad worked!
Thanks for solving my problem for me!
Rebecca