message exceeds server limit of 2.9 MB?

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message exceeds server limit of 2.9 MB?

Hey all,
I have two users in my office using mac mail. Both receive messages similar to this:

Error
The message could not be delivered and will remain in your outbox until if can be delivered.
Your message has size 3.4 MB, which exceeds 2.9 MB, the maximum allowed by the server.

The 3.4 can change to read various numbers, but the 2.9 MB is constant. I know that our ISP doesn't block messages that small.

Any thoughts???

Thanks in advance.

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Aug 29, 2006 1:00 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 29, 2006 2:13 PM in response to extremeKev

The recipient's e-mail server may be blocking the message due to its size.

Can you identify where the failure message is coming from?

It's possible that your own network administrator has put a message size restriction in place.

Are you able to send messages larger than 2.9MB to anyone, or do they all get blocked?

Very hard to troubleshoot this one without more detailed information.

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Answer 2

extremeKev Author

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Aug 30, 2006 4:22 AM in response to extremeKev

Hey thanks for the help.
Yes, we can send larger files to different people internally and externally. The problem is very intermitant. You are right, that some places may block messages over a certain size, but internally we have no size limit on what we can receive.

I've been reading that the problem may have something to do with the way mail encodes attachments. (after encoding, the entire message is double what it should be - but my problem with this is that my error message should say something other than 2.9 MB). Any thoughts on this idea?

Thanks again for the help.

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Answer 3

Aug 30, 2006 4:34 AM in response to extremeKev

The Mail.app uses MIME 1.0 for attachment encoding which is the internet standard and the encoding process increases the size of the pre-encoded file by roughly 50%, not 100%.

http://faq.hostrocket.com/index.php?page=index_v2&id=136&c=6

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Answer 4

extremeKev Author

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Aug 30, 2006 5:24 AM in response to Allan Sampson

Thanks for your post Allen.
Either way, 50% or 100%, I'm still getting this message. Also, I've tried setting up an account using Entourage. I can send the same attachments with that program, that I'm getting the error with in mac mail. It's odd.

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Answer 5

Aug 30, 2006 6:14 AM in response to extremeKev

Just because sending large objects to people is so problematic I usually upload them to a server and send them the URL to download it.

Another alternative is http://www.yousendit.com/

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