Network administrators are charged with the undaunting task of keeping their networks alive and well.
But in today’s world of increasing file sizes and people using e-mail to communicate with each other. The question is asked, how do we regulatethe size of e-mails without disrupting daily business.
I see problems on multiple fronts.
1. Users lack of knowledge of the purpose and limitations of e-mail, it’s servers and the smtp protocol.
2. Mail admins lack of ability to enforce it’s policies.
3. Mail admins that are unaware of what their users are doing.
I have personnaly seen 220 megs being sent through our mail server. (Yes I did stop this immediately after having a heart attack).
Our solution. We have instituted a2 meg limit, both incoming and outgoing. Files over 2 megs must be FTP’d using our public ftp server.
Is this the best solution? I don’t know. But I do know that we as Net and Mail Admins need to be pro-active in the prevention of this practice.
The abuse of our mail servers is increasing and is showing no signs of slowing down.
Let me know your thoughts, encounters and solutions to this growing problem.
