Microsoft Outlook 2010 / ISP / Email sizes

[Sommaz]

Hi guys,

hoping for some help please if possible;

I work from 3 different offices and my work involves sending emails with large size files on a daily basis >10MB.

2 offices I work from have 3BB internet and 1 of them has TOT.

I've recently set up an email account in Microsoft Outlook 2010 on my laptop but have encountered a couple of hiccups in sending emails (receiving is fine, no probs).

1) I found that whenever I get to the office with TOT, I had a problem in sending emails, they just seemed to remain in my outbox without sending, so I changed the SMTP outgoing mail server setting to "smtp.totisp.net" and that did the trick, but then when I went back to the other office (with 3BB) then I had to change it back again and so on.. Does anyone know another way to overcome this without having to change settings each time I arrive at a different office?

2) Also, whenever I try to send emails with large attachments (usually between 7 and 14 MB) I keep getting failure messages like "file size exceeded". I have found via Google that Outlook 2010 actually limits the attachment sizes to 10MB, but apparently there is a work-around by changing values in RegEdit so I'm going to give that a try. Meanwhile it has also been suggested by a man in the pub lastnight that the ISP's sometimes place limits on email sizes too. Does anyone know if there are any limits on email sizes with TOT and if so is there any solutions ?

I might just have to ditch Microsoft Outlook and find an alternative, any advice would be most welcome and appreciated, apologies if any of the above are dumbass questions

Thanks!

Sommaz

[KittenKong]

Email is not suitable for large attachments. In fact it was never designed for attachments at all and it handles them badly.

Why not use an online service like Dropbox or Onedrive that allows file sharing (there are many others) and just send the link to your correspondent?

Edited November 29, 2014 by KittenKong

[Sommaz]

Thanks very much KK that's a good suggestion

I already have a dropbox account as it happens (although its full currently). I'll perhaps give it a whirl and see if I can get used to it or more importantly will see how the recipients take to it. Creatures of habit!

[NamKAheng]

Go with Thunderbird, no problem at all and it is free. Outlook 2010 is also known to loose archived compressed e-mails, happened 2 times for me before I switch to Thunderbird.

[arnestockholm]

Well to send about 10 MB should not a problem at all. It's true that email isn't designed for large attachments but wouldn't consider 10 MB as large, so basically I would switch to another email provider and stop using the SMTP from the buggy Thai providers. Try gmail or another third party SMTP and you will have no issues. For sure if you really send large attachments over 50 or 100 MB the Dropbox idea is good.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Chicog]

If you want file transfer with email notifications, so that they can pick them up at their convenience, use a file sending service like wetransfer.com or yousendit.com.

There is a de facto email attachment limit of 10Mb on many mail servers.

Edited November 29, 2014 by Chicog

[innerspace]

To get around tot issues switch your smtp to use ssl which normally means port 465. As long as your provider supports it will be fine on tot and 3bb.

Tot is famed for blocking unsecured outbound smtp to try and stop spam. Stay clear of all local isp smtp servers, they all suck.

10mb should work on most, gmail etc accept 30mb but many have lower limits. That said 10mb is still on the large side and not ideal for email.

Finally outlook on poor connections often has issues, especially with big attachments. Number of times I went through time consuming processes getting an outlook outbound mail queue to restart drove me to ban it and switch the company to thunderbird.

[Digitalbanana]

>so I changed the SMTP outgoing mail server setting to "smtp.totisp.net" and that did the trick, but then when I went back to the other office (with 3BB) then I had to change it back again and so on

Unless I misread the o/p it doesn't say which email service is being used with MS Outlook, so disregard the superfluous stuff about changing to other email clients like Thunderbird. The mail server POP settings should work irrespective of the ISP (TOT or 3BB?). Therefore if they don't get another email provider such as Gmail that uses smtp.gmail.com on all ISPs. Agree better to use cloud servers/links to files rather than attached larger files in email which is bad etiquette.

[ukrules]

I've found that various Thai ISP's block outgoing connections on port 25 (the SMTP port) unless it's going to their own mail server.

I have my own mail server in a datecenter and I run it on port 2525 as well as 25, this clears up any problems.

From experience the same thing happens with mobile phone providers all over the world, they block port 25.

[innerspace]

I've found that various Thai ISP's block outgoing connections on port 25 (the SMTP port) unless it's going to their own mail server.

I have my own mail server in a datecenter and I run it on port 2525 as well as 25, this clears up any problems.

From experience the same thing happens with mobile phone providers all over the world, they block port 25.

Exactly, but simpler method than non standard ports is switch on ssl which uses a different port that isnt blocked.

[Sommaz]

Great advice guys, thank you all very much - its absolutely bang on what I was looking for. I've learned alot & I've got plenty of options to try when I get to work tomorrow... !

[Pib]

This Microsoft Office article on Outlook 2010 may help. It says the default max size set in Outlook2010 is 20MB and shows you how to possibly change it. However, but, I expect your ISP limits attachment size to something smaller like around 10MB or even smaller...can vary from ISP to ISP.

[Sommaz]

just to report back;

I found my way to the 'configure email client' page on the Cpanel for our domain and found the Secure SSL Settings for incoming & outgoing servers.

Incoming Server: IMAP Port: 993 or POP 3 Port: 995
Outgoing Server: SMTP Port 465 (as was advised by innerspace)

I went into my Outlook 2010 account settings and changed the details in there and selected "SSL" in the box where it asked what type of encryption. Then I sent a couple of test emails with attachments of 13MB to my colleagues. It worked. I tried from both our site offices, with ToT and 3BB.

As per your kind suggestions, I have also downloaded and installed Mozilla Thunderbird and using the same account settings (which were automatically configured, great) I was also able to send the same test emails from there too. So I'm going to familiarize myself with that and perhaps change over to it in future. I'm changing all of my colleagues' mail settings in line with the above and if they can get used to it, they all may even swap to Thunderbird (I see there is an option to 'add-on' a Thai Language pack, which would suit them).

File sharing is something that I'm going to look at next and see what is available. I'll try not to pester you guys too much for more information!

Thanks again for your kind assistance.