At 10:36 AM 10/16/98 +0100, you wrote:
>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.
Someone managed to inflate their CV recently, with the aid of Word 97, into a
file of some vast size and Demon refused to move it off the server to me or to
send me any mail backed up beyond it, without overtly saying what was wrong. I
had to get their Support to have a look and then kill the file. When I emailed
the sender she was much surprised and faxed me the 2 or 3 pages involved. So
evidently Demon also have not got this quite tied up.
Senior Lurker
>
>
>--- OffRoad 1.9r registered to Adrian Midgley
>
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