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I have a few clients who love to send large emails. No I’m not talking wordy I’m talking large attachments. I’ve encouraged them to zip them or some other means of compressing them but sometimes you just can’t shrink some files any more. While there are file uploading sites and web based emails seem to work a bit better there are a few things to note when sending large files through email.

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Keep in mind that email was designed to be simple messages. Nothing very complex, just a quick note to send information. Attachments were added later and while implemented brilliantly were simply shoved into a system that was never designed to handle copious amounts of data. With the advent of faster computers and more bandwidth the problem is not really apparent UNTIL you try and send than 10MB file.

Often people will receive a message saying timeout or contact your system administrator. An attempt to send to the same people using a web based email is successful.

Most of the time there is a problem not with the server but the machine sending the email. Here are a few of the items to check

Timeouts - If a timeout in Outlook is set too short then it can look like the server is cutting out when in reality Outlook is getting impatient. To update this check the email accounts Advanced settings. Most problems result in timeouts so even with a large timeout you still can have a problem.

Virus Scanners - To reduce the spread of viruses many virus scanners not only scan incoming emails but outgoing emails also. It does this by redirecting the outgoing email port to itself, scanning the email and then sending the email along it’s way. For most emails this isn’t a problem for large ones it can be a BIG problem as Outlook OR the server will think that there is lost connection and terminate sending the email.

Network Bandwidth - Yep you may have 7MB downstream speed but what is your upload speed? Probably a LOT less. If a 7MB file takes a few minutes to download it may take 10 times that amount to upload.

Network Stability - Sometimes you have a badly set MTU or some other obscure setting that could be causing a problem. While smaller emails may go through larger ones may have an intermittent problems.

Solutions to these problems can range from turning off your virus scanner, increasing timeouts, upgrading your network connection and tweaking settings. The BEST solutions I’ve found are to rethink what you’re sending, send via webmail or use a file upload service. I personally upload the file to an area on my website and give access to the person I’m sending to.

• Fixing Outlook Timeout -  Instructions for Outlook
• Virus Scanner Timeouts  -  Discussion on Virus scanning and email attachments
• Help with MTU Settings -Help with MTU settings.

While these may not solve all your problems they may give you a starting point to help you email that large attachment.