acceptable email attachment size 1

[Meson]

Hi all,

I have an issue with a user requiring that they be able to receive emails between 30 and 60+mb
Our global setting is 10mb, and anywhere I have worked has been the same if not smaller. These emails will most likely be going to another person within same company.

I have suggested that they use our FTP server for such large files but I have been told that this is unacceptable, now everywhere I have been FTP has been the only way to go for large files, as we all know; Email was not designed for shifting large files around the internet etc.

I’m trying to find white papers etc from MS that clearly show the implications of allowing large attachments to hit our Exchange server, and white paper stating that 5-10-mb is best practise etc. It’s sad to have to argue the case to the business but we need too. We simply can’t afford the potential problems that may occur.

I have had a searched the net and found bits and bobs but can anyone point me to a link or something with the relevant information regarding MS Exchange attachment best practises? Or, has anybody else had to deal with this resistance before if so how did you deal with it?

Any thoughts on the matter will be most appreciated.

Cheers

 

[DJCopa]

I think your stance is totally understandable - Staff who question limits, etc. on email are very rarely the ones who have to deal with network bottlenecks, etc.

Our limit is set to 20MB - Anything over this, we advise staff to use

http://www.yousendit.com

. The issue is not just network performance, but also mailbox sizes. Do you do a Brick-Level backup? You can use the argument that this level of data recovery would be impacted, as mailboxes would grow to an unmanageable size, stopping backups from running in the allocated time frame.

Hope that helps.

 

[markdmac]

Are the users located in different locations or the same location? Why are they not simply putting the files on a network share and sending a link to the file rather than duplicating the file in email?

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[58sniper]

SharePoint is the answer. Document libraries make things so much easier.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[Meson]

Thanks for the info.

The problem is the emails are comming from another company. Not internal otherwise it would be simple. The situation is becoming some what political, the people at the top are insisting we cant use FTP!!

Bricklevel backup is performed.

 

[markdmac]

So why not suggest SFTP?

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[Meson]

Yeah, it’s not a security thing. Unfortunately the mere process of having people login etc is too hard. I'm told it's unprofessional!! people are being truly difficult. I have explained that my mother-law a girl from the old school (70yrs) can FTP to my home server to get latest pics patches etc seems to make no difference. I even have a draft bullet point instructions with screen shots showing what to do. The answeer remains NO to FTP/SFTP

 

[markdmac]

The last suggestion I have for you is give the person at the other company a VPN connection into your network. Then let them copy files directly to a share on your server.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[Ceez]

we have stubborn a stubborn owner as well as users that like to send large files via email. we tried locking it down to 10 megs (it was set up by the prior director to 20mb). Obviously days after we implemented the change with their knowledge the owner had to send a very very very very (add as many "very" as you want) that was 12 megs....oh the world came to an end and we had to up it for everyone again to 20.

bottom line, users are idiots and the owners who think that know so much are just as dumb.

sorry, a mini vent. but good luck training the poo flinging monkeys a new trick!

 

[Zelandakh]

Just make the limit 100mb and when the server fills up, tell them it is because they set the limit too high...move the onus to them not you.

 

[markdmac]

What will be really fun is to see what happens when the queues back up when you have to send an important email and you are waiting on a 30MG file to travel out on your Internet connection.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[Meson]

Problem is the implication of having to perform emergency maintenance of DB's. If anything breaks it's us that have to fix etc, would rather not go there ... Just don't want to be bullied by non-IT, to give in now would potentially open up the flood gate for more unreasonable requests there after.

I cant find white paper Exchange 2003 to show as proof to the non techs, that it's inadvisable to go beyond 10MB. Does anyone have a link?

Cheers

 

[markdmac]

Check out the first part of this link that discusses how an attachment will grow by as much as 30%!!!:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd314394.aspx

And here the Exchange team says that MS has set the standard at 10MB.

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/07/06/428213.aspx

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[baddos]

If it's the owner of a private business wanting the size increase, it's fairly easy to show him/her a cost/benefit analysis of how much in additional resources it would require (i.e. money) vs. minor training issues related to FTP transfer.

Many companies use FTP especially with graphics/advertising firms, etc. It's not unprofessional in the least.

 

[strongm]

>I cant find white paper Exchange 2003 to show as proof to the non techs, that it's inadvisable to go beyond 10MB

And I don't think you'll find such a document, I'm afraid, since it isn't any sort of definitive limit

The official blog of the Microsoft Exchange team, however, does state in a blog about quotas and limits:

Message Size Limits

Microsoft has a best practice of a 10MB limit. Exchange Server 2003 by default sets the global message size limit to 10MB. The Exchange Product Group implemented this code change due to customer feedback and to help protect against denial of service attacks.

 

[strongm]

Oh, actually I see markdmac has already linked to this blog

 

[Zelandakh]

I've had limits of 300MB on bridgeheads for some years now and recently joined a company with 8MB limits.

As people have posted above, attachments can increase in size through MIME encoding so sometimes 8MB=6MB.

As I said before, move the onus back on them - don't leave it on yourself.

 

[markdmac]

so sometimes 8MB=6MB.

Zelandakh, that would be a decrease in size, did you intend for it to be the other way around or did you mistype?

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[58sniper]

Nick's on the other side of the pond, Mark. They do things backwards over there. :-D

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[Zelandakh]

8mb limit is a 6mb attachment...was what I meant.

Pedant...