ietf-822
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Re: Problems with Messages over 50000 bytes

1992-06-17 10:30:45
Well, MIME actually gives you two options that might improve this situation:

1.  Using the MIME type "message/partial", you can have your mail
fragmented into "small-enough" pieces for delivery, and they will be
automatically reassembled at the other end if the recipients have MIME
software.

2.  Using the MIME type "message/external-body" you can make your mail
much smaller, but have it contain a pointer to the real data, which is
available via other mechanisms such as anonymous ftp.  Again, the data
will be automatically retrieved on behalf of the user if the recipients
have MIME software.

With regard to your particular question: "What can be done about
requiring hosts on the Internet to accept large messages, in particular
over 50,000 bytes?"  I believe the host requirements RFC currently says
that everyone should accept 64 (or is it 100?) Kbytes , so sites could
be pressured to go at least that high, but as long as there is some
fixed limit these problems will continue to crop up.  Using one of the
new MIME types might be a better solution.  -- Nathaniel