On Mon, 2 Feb 1998, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> IMHSHO for mail traversing external ``public'' networks anything more
> than about 1MB should be considered very excessive. 100KB should be
> more than enough in fact, at least until 99% of the world has better
> than 56KB connectivity or better.
You offer no arguements here on why you think 1MB is "very excessive".
10MB is a good maximum message size. I checked several large mail sites
(some who's admins are on this list) and they are pretty much all at 10MB
(or higher) too. I recommend that people keep there mail to about half
that (5MB). I've never had a problem with mail that size (other than
some lame sites that refuse to accept it).
I don't really care about the connectivity of other sites. If they
don't want large mails, they can refuse to accept them. As you stated in
a previous message, setting up an e-mail system on the Internet implies
certain responsibilities (your wording was much better).
...
> If you agree with what I'm saying then the word to say to
> upper-management types who baulk at such limits is a firm, solid, sticky
> "NO" followed by an even more solid period. They must trust the mail
> admin that such limits on external gateways are a critical security
> measure and that they are in no way restrictive to "normal" use. If you
> can't gain such trust from your management then you should have serious
> questions to ask about your position.
Critical security measure?
What background are you from? It doesn't seem that you've worked
on a significant real-world mail system before.
...
> Lastly if there's no other way than e-mail to send a large file, then
> surely one could use a MIME capable mailer that'll break the message
> into as many small-enough parts as necessary. This isn't rocket science
> any more!
But why break the message into parts? It is just more work for the same
affect. In fact, one large message is better because it imposes less
overhead and results in less mail to handle. I'd take 100 1MB message
over 1000 100KB messages anyday.
> --
> Greg A. Woods
>
> +1 416 443-1734 VE3TCP <gwoods@???> <robohack!woods>
> Planix, Inc. <woods@???>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@???>
Tom
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