Block downloads of large emails

Helpline Q&A Directory

I recently received a 5,338KB email, and had no alternative but to download the whole thing. I would like to see ISPs provide users with the ability to see what messages are queuing for them, with details such as sender and file size. Unwanted emails can then be deleted and others downloaded in order of priority.

We understand your annoyance at receiving such a large unsolicited email. However, it isn't the job of the ISP to provide such a facility. It is a function of the mail software that you use. Most mail clients, unfortunately, don't provide a facility that would allow you to preview large messages. However it would certainly be possible for them to do so.

Outlook Express 5.0 lets you define a mail rule so that you don't have to download large messages. To do this, click Tools on the menu, then Message Rules, Mail. On the Mail Rules dialog box, click New. The Edit Mail Rule dialog box will appear and allow you to define the message processing rule.

In the first panel, scroll down until you see the condition 'Where the message size is more than size' and select it. The text will appear in the rule description (the third panel). Click on the word 'size', which is underlined like a link on a web page. When a pop-up dialog box appears, enter the maximum message size you are prepared to download, and click ok.

Now go to panel two. You need to actually specify the action to be performed on received messages that meet this particular condition. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and select 'Delete it from server'.

You could, on the other hand, select 'Do not download it from server'. However, Outlook Express won't tell you that a large message is there, never mind who it is from. This means it will either stay there forever, or until your ISP makes the decision to delete it.

All in all, this is not very helpful, so perhaps Microsoft can come up with a better system in Outlook Express 6.0. Finally go to panel four and enter a name for the mail rule, such as 'Delete Large Messages'. When you've done all this, click ok. If you receive any messages bigger than the size specified, Outlook Express will silently delete them from the server instead of downloading them.

If your ISP supports webmail, such as Freeserve, or if you have a web-based email account such as Hotmail, deleting unwanted messages before downloading is not a problem. If your ISP doesn't have a webmail option, another way round this probelm is to use Twigger, an online service that lets log on to your mail server and delete the offending file. This could be useful if your ISP doesn't offer a web mail option. If you're interested, visit the website at www.twigger.co.uk.