Various people are alleged to have said things like: "file transfer by email is evil" ========================================================= Business Response: "Parcel Post" is just as valid for electronic media as it is for physical media. Of course it would be stupid, most of the time, to use email to transfer the Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (~100 Megabytes), but it can be done. (It truth, I have never mailed an attachment larger than 50 Megabytes.) The business arguments for casual exchange of documents using email are, I believe, strong. Creation of an FTP site or a Web site is NOT a good idea for the casual user, even ignoring the difficulty of explaining how to make one work using a transient IP address. Security and support are difficult enough today without adding that complication. Arbitrarily denying the use of email for file transfer is, in and of itself, tortuous interference with legitimate business of others. - James R. Cutler - EDS 800 Tower Drive, Troy, MI 48098 1 248 265 7514 james.cutler@eds.com
Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 08:13:18 -0400 From: "Cutler, James R" <james.cutler@eds.com>
Various people are alleged to have said things like:
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Business Response:
[ snip ] I rather like DJB's IM2000 initiative: http://cr.yp.to/im2000.html Why not send the header with some "magic authentication cookie" to the receiver, who may then yank the file from sender-side spool using HTTP or some other protocol that's more efficient than uu- or mime-encoded SMTP? Eddy --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brotsman & Dreger, Inc. EverQuick Internet Division Phone: (316) 794-8922 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 11:23:58 +0000 (GMT) From: A Trap <blacklist@brics.com> To: blacklist@brics.com Subject: Please ignore this portion of my mail signature. These last few lines are a trap for address-harvesting spambots. Do NOT send mail to <blacklist@brics.com>, or you are likely to be blocked.
Various people are alleged to have said things like:
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Business Response:
[ snip ]
the problem with large file transfer via email is that it takes up more space than the actual file (it's usually encoded in some manner which makes it grow by a factor of somewhere from 1.2 to 1.4), and there's no guarantee that the sender will do anything about it. the use of ftp or scp to retrieve files requires active involvement and encourages the recipient to do something with the file. it's a simple matter of a synchronous system compared to an asynchronous one. my personal view is that email messages should not exceed one megabyte in size. anything larger is (imo) silly.
I rather like DJB's IM2000 initiative:
hmm...sounds like pop-without-smtp, except it needs smtp to send the notifications. i guess i could spam notifications to someone and end in the same pickle i'm in now wrt to spam.
Why not send the header with some "magic authentication cookie" to the receiver, who may then yank the file from sender-side spool using HTTP or some other protocol that's more efficient than uu- or mime-encoded SMTP?
like this? Content-Type: Message/External-body; name="draft-bogdanov-comments-umsp-01.txt"; site="ftp.ietf.org"; access-type="anon-ftp"; directory="internet-drafts" that and a small perl script are how i get all the internet drafts and rfcs as they are published. -- |-----< "CODE WARRIOR" >-----| codewarrior@daemon.org * "ah! i see you have the internet twofsonet@graffiti.com (Andrew Brown) that goes *ping*!" andrew@crossbar.com * "information is power -- share the wealth."
On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 08:13:18AM -0400, Cutler, James R wrote:
Various people are alleged to have said things like: "file transfer by email is evil"
alleged? dammit, i wanna get t-shirts printed up! 8^)
Arbitrarily denying the use of email for file transfer is, in and of itself, tortuous interference with legitimate business of others.
owning and operating an ISP with an AUP is "in and of itself, tortuous interference with legitimate business of others." whether that AUP is about SPAM, or kiddie-porn (a business to some) or huge emails, the ISP should be, and is, allowed to make its own judgements of what it allows/disallows. it may be your opinion that limiting email message sizes is possibily detrimental to some classes of users, and may cause them to not be customers. it is my opinion that we will keep more customers than we lose, merely by having facilities that work efficiently, stably and cost effectively. -- [ Jim Mercer jim@reptiles.org +1 416 410-5633 ] [ Now with more and longer words for your reading enjoyment. ]
participants (4)
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Andrew Brown -
Cutler, James R -
E.B. Dreger -
Jim Mercer