Many internet users may experience e-mail problems from time to time, and one common issue arises because of trying to send an attachment with a large message, such as 500k, or even one megabyte or more, which can be considered quite large if one or more people involved in the transfer are using a 56k or less modem. (Reference the Newbie Basics section if you're unsure about this.) The thing is, the standards for e-mail were set about 20 years ago, and the great wizards of internetdom have so far not seen any reason to change them to any great degree. The data is sent in packets that may become a bit jammed during transmission to or from the sender. That means someone using a 56k modem to send a nice picture, song, video or other application may have to wait a long time for the message to be sent, then when the recipient starts to download their messages, they may have to wait just as long or longer to receive it, depending on their net connection. All in all, that can be very frustrating for all parties involved. Of course, when you think about it, millions of people sending pictures of the family dog through the internet is an invitation to clogging up e-mail servers worldwide. That's a good reason to discourage people from doing it by not upgrading the standard. With some of the popular E-mail programs, such as Outlook Express the sending and receiving process can occur at about half (or less) the speed of downloading from websites if you're lucky. So for dial-up users, we don't recommend trying to send or recieve large files (500k and up) through the e-mail, as it can cause you some problems. It's actually better to use a service like idrive, although we wouldn't recommend relying on an outside source for long-term storage of your important files. Even better than that is to send just the link of the file location, so the person can download it at their leisure.
If, however you know how to use a file compression program such as WINZIP95 or Win Ace. We have a link to a nice tutorial on using Winzip (You can also check out our Win Ace page) and know how to save a picture in the .jpg format,
you can send small bundles (still try to keep the total
package under 300k) and
not have much of a problem. The pictures below are only 40.3Kb and 33.2Kb,
respectively. You'll notice that they are not quite as sharp as an image from film
negative to print. This is a small tradeoff necessary to help the files move at a
fair rate. We don't recommend trying to send more than maybe 3 or 4 of this size
(under 50k) at any one time, to make the transfer more efficient for both sides involved.
Also, if you want someone to check out a web page that you
are viewing while in Internet Explorer, it is much more practical to click on File, then
click on Send Link by E-mail. This is a better method than sending the whole page by
e-mail, because if they receive it at all, some parts may be missing from the page.
Although it may seem inconvenient, it actually helps to prevent infringement of
intellectual property of the website owners and authors.
If you have friends or relatives that are constantly wanting to send files like this,
please inform them of the problems that can be caused, and the best way to send a link
through the e-mail. One alternative is to make the images available on a personal
website, so that the receiving party can download the files at their leisure.
There have been some people that have a moment of difficulty with Outlook Express and go changing settings. This is not recommended for the novice, because it only increases your chances of not being able to send or receive again. If you feel like someone might have adjusted your settings when you were away from your computer, you can check these things:
Click on Tools.
Click on accounts.
Click on the mail tab.
Click on the ACS account.
Click on Properties.
Click on Connection.
Make sure that the Server Timeout setting is all the way to the right so that is says 5
minutes.
If you have to change it to the 5 minutes setting (which you most likely will,) make sure
to click Apply in the lower right hand corner. The window should look like this,
Then click OK.
Also, if you're not receiving e-mail, make sure your settings are like this in Outlook Express.
If it is a different type problem not listed here, help
is just a call away.
354-3069
354-2709
For Wedowee customers, 1-866-7ACSISP