Re: Workstations Cannot Download Large Emails

From: Roland Hall (nobody_at_nowhere)
Date: 05/18/04 

Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 02:04:49 -0500

"David Dickinson" wrote in message
news:e65501c43c7c$0c16d250$a001280a@phx.gbl...
<!--SNiP-->
: When we try to download emails with large attachments,
: nothing gets by the firewall/gateway. Here's what I've
: tried:
:
: 1. Increasing the connection timeout in Outlook to 5
: minutes (much more than enough for a 4MB download).

Considering this should only take seconds, ya' too long indeed. You should
not shoot for a work around.

:
: 2. Turning off the firewall software's email/cookie/etc.
: scanning.

Oh my...

: 3. Adding the mail servers to the trusted zones.

Hmmm...

: 4. Reducing internet zone security to Medium (block only
: incoming NETBIOS ports).

Probably not relative.

: 5. Creating a custom firewall rule specifically allowing
: POP3.

Ok.

: 6. Other stuff that I can't remember.

That's not much help. (O:=

: Everything works only when I disable the firewall
: software.

We have a winner!

: A caveat: Let's say that I have a 3MB message waiting.
: With the firewall enabled and the standard 1 minute
: connection timeout, it dies. If I increase the email
: account's timeout to 5 minutes, I can get it. But
: anything that requires more than 5 minutes (the maximum
: timout allowable in Microsoft Outlook) to download (and
: some of my clients must be able to receive huge files via
: email) will fail.

Ah, the root of the problem. Using a transmission process that was designed
to send text only while not using something that was designed to send files.

: The funny thing is that this was never a problem until
: about 3 weeks ago, and the problem is occuring on more
: that one network, all of which are completely
: independent. And -- I swear! -- I hadn't changed
: anything on those machines except to install the latest
: Microsoft Windows Critical Updates and Microsoft Office
: Updates. Could that be the problem? I am at my wits'
: end!

If that's the only thing you have changed, what do you think?

: I'm not sure, but it seems almost as if the gateways used
: to "trickle" just enough of the downloaded messages to
: the clients in order to keep them from timing out, but
: that the "trickle" has now stopped.

There are other possibilities than sending files as an email attachment.

: I'll be grateful for /any/ ideas.

Setup and FTP server or ASP upload and eliminate the email scenario. Don't
tell me it can't be done. I modified a global company who was sending 26mb
email attachments daily. It was the morning report filled with .bmp files.
Ironically zipping the attachments reduced to them to less than 1mb. It was
definitely the clueless leading the blind. However the files were put on a
web site and only reviewed by those who cared. In the immortal words of a
Sprint TV commercial, "Problem solved."

I saw another response was to use a hardware firewall vs software and you
said it was cheaper to use a software solution. I spent $100 after a $40
rebate for my hardware firewall but let's put it this way. How much is it
costing them now not to get their files? Whether you believe it or not,
time is money and if it saves time, it pays for itself. It's just a matter
of time. (O:=

HTH... 

-- 
Roland Hall
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