At 5:39 PM -0800 12/10/99, Ross Finlayson wrote:
>
>So I wonder, what do people think is a reasonable suggested maximum email
>message size these days (for messages sent over the public Internet, not
>just within a private intranet)?
I'm not sure you can express this in absolute terms. If a message is
so large delivery of it impedes the ability of you neighbors to use
the net, it's too large. But I have no idea how to apply a criteria
like that in a realistic way. Once a message has been handed to the
first smtp-receiver, determining if the path it transits obstructs
other traffic at any point along its path is well beyond the ken of
the original sender.
I suppose an smtp sender could apply a size-of-message policy to sort
it's queue. That at least would keep a large message from
obstructing a gaggle of shorter ones, especially for a slow link.
> Is there a RFC anywhere that lists a
>recommended maximum size? And should email programs issue a warning if a
>user tries to send a message that's 'too large'?
Defining "too large" is tricky. "Too large for whom? The sender,
the receiver or any hop in between? Eudora will warn a user if he
queues a message larger than a certain value. The threshold can be
set by the user. The motivation is to warn senders using a dial-up
connection they are about to spend a long time on the phone. It
might encourage senders to have some consideration for receivers of
their message, although I wouldn't claim much chance of that.
best,
--
john noerenberg
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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There is no sorrow like the memory of love
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