E-Mail FAQ

Large E-Mail Problems

Background:

E-mail service was never designed to transfer large files--FTP (File Transfer Protocol) was. FTP continually checks to see that every packet was delivered accurately; if one was missed. that packet will be resent.

E-mail will just cancel and resend at a later time. So, it the Internet connection is jittery at all . . . ongoing problems.

So, avoid large attachments.
Knowing point #1, above, e-mail servers (and the Internet infrastructure between the servers) commonly set a maximum size for an allowable attachment. 2MB is safe, 5MB is somewhat risky, 10MB is just begging for trouble. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_attachment, http://www.querycat.com/question/a8b9f4d0417d254c3c295950a838cdc6)

Worst of all, you may believe the e-mail was sent, but it may be deleted anywhere along the route--after leaving your computer. You may not get an error message!

Just to make it confusing . . . often e-mails sent within the same server can be much larger as they do not have to pass the gauntlet of the Internet's infrastructure. This is why larger e-mails from a ???@telus.net account going to another
???@telus.net account may be successful.
Finally, if you successfully send a 10MB file, and the receiving e-mail account only has 9MB of space available--it can't be delivered!

In short, ideally keep the total e-mail size below 2MB. Two MB may look something like "2000000 bytes".

Optimize images before sending them. This can be done at the camera, scanner, or the software (e.g. Acrobat, Photoshop, or WinZip) that is used to create/modify the file. Get the total file size below 2MB. Attaching three 2MB files means the e-mail is 6 MB--and that is getting unsafe.

Or
Use a different method to transfer large files: (There are may different ones, but I'm familiar with the following.)
1. Inside a company or with people you transfer regularly:
  1. FTP. This requires an FTP site to hold the files and every computer to have an FTP program or know how to do it with Internet Explorer. Bit of a learning curve here.
  2. WINRAR is apparently quite good--I haven't used it.
2. To a variety of people.
  1. Use a Dropbox type of service (https://www.dropbox.com/tour#3)
  2. Use a file transfer service. https://www.yousendit.com/cms/compareaccounts is one of the better ones.
Set up an e-mail account to receive large attachments. If you have a major client that, unfortunately, sends large e-mails--can you get an e-mail address like theirs? If they use Telus, can you get a Telus e-mail address for them to send to? Your Outlook can be set to pick mail up from that address at the same time it picks up your regular e-mail.

My recommendation for sending large attachments, try You Send It, as this is very simple, inexpensive, and reliable tool.