Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!ico!rcd
From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Is the Adobe server OK???
Summary: mail-server problems
Message-ID: <1990Dec17.223624.11287@ico.isc.com>
Date: 17 Dec 90 22:36:24 GMT
References: <1990Dec12.022137.25202@groucho> <1745@chinacat.Unicom.COM>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation, Boulder, CO
Lines: 22

woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) writes in favor of
the mail-based file server...

> ...The mail server is
> more general, *everyone* can get at a mail server...

It's not that easy.  It depends on the indulgence of the sites along the
mail path from the server to your machine.  Many sites have limits which
prevent sending large files via mail--common limits are 1000 lines and 100
Kb; I know of a major Internet site with a 50 Kb limit.  The reason for
these limits is that it doesn't make sense to transfer large files with a
store-and-forward mechanism when you can establish an end-to-end connec-
tion.  Files available from the Adobe file server have numerous hacks to
get around problems of mailing large files--split into pieces, compress,
uuencode...and the server also has to do some load-limiting because of the
low bandwidth of mail pathways.

The mail-based server is useful, particularly for the little guys, but
there really ought to be a way to ftp the stuff too.
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...Mr. Natural says, "Use the right tool for the job."