The excuse for a 25MByte file attachment crashing an e-mail system
must rank among the most fatuous since the wrong sort of leaves.
Leaving aside the inability of NHS Net to handle files attached to
e-mails in any sensible sort of way anyway...a task accomplished by
all free email clients...
it is the responsibility of the programmer to anticipate damn silly
behaviour by users, and either whoever set up that gateway is
incompetent or he has been libelled by the Executive if that is
indeed the excuse they are offering. Frankly I doubt it.
An over size attached file should bounce back to sender with an
error message like "file too large, put it on a tape and send it".
However, why do I doubt it as an explanation? Because these systems
running IP or IPX or any of the other protocols usually found in
networks don't send 25MBytes as one chunk, they send it as packets.
And it beggars belief that a system would be set up by anyone with a
shred of brain so that it sent every packet of one message before
sending one packet of another message. So, an overload could be
ex[ected to slow the transmission through a gateway, but not to stop
it.
It is regrettable that one simply cannot believe the pronouncements
of most of the NHS Executive nowadays, not least since this has
spread to teh general population who now disbelieve most of what
they are told by managers and admindroids, and there is a risk that
this may spread to doctors - who at the moment are still widely
believed, but must not compromise themselves by appearing to accept
the sort of crap handed out by management in for instance PCGs.
--- OffRoad 1.9r registered to Adrian Midgley
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