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MailRules has options to make it easier for you to transmit very large amounts of data via e-mail. These communications are best performed MailRules-to-MailRules, but you can gain some limited functionality by just compressing files before you transmit them to any mail client. The most obvious limitations on any e-mail transmission is the volume of data that an ISP (Internet Service Provider) will accept in any one message and, secondly, the sum total of data that can be stored in a Mailbox. In this topic we'll examine methods of transmitting potentially large amounts of data.that will overcome both these limits.
We start by creating an Outbound Rule by clicking the Add button on the Outbound Rule menu. MailRules shows us a blank Outbound Rule, the first thing we do is change the Rule Name to be more meaningful. Then we set the Rule Type to be Advanced.
Next we click the To: button, select our recipient from the address book and click OK.
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Now, on the What tab, we select the file(s) or folder(s) we want to send. In this example, we select one folder using the Add Folder.. button and also selected Send subfolders.
On the When tab, we click Add and create a Send Time of Friday at 19:00. Clicking OK adds the Send Time to our schedule.
Now, on the How tab, we indicate that we want to send the data in parts of no larger than 1mb by clicking Split message size and using the up & down arrows to select the size. We would also like confirmation back from the remote MailRules that the actions have been completed, so we also select Processed receipt requested.
Next, on the Where tab, we indicate where the receiving MailRules should store the data by specifying either Folder / Alias. We have entered the name of an Alias that the recipient has made known to us. We also supply the Default Password and select Recreate subfolders to indicate that the folder structure should be created and the files placed in the folders from where they came.
We click OK and the Outbound Rule is complete.
What will happen now: Every Friday at 19:00, MailRules will find all files in our folder and any subfolders it may have. The files will be compressed and, if their size exceeds one megabyte, will be divided into similarly sized segments. Each segment will be e-mailed individually to the receipient in a series of messages marked "x of n" (x = segment number, n = total number of segments). When the recipient MailRules reads e-mail during its next scheduled Check Time, it will download all these parts, recombine and place them into the corresponding folders. This method can be used to bypass an ISP imposed restriction on message size.
Surefire Delivery performs basically the same operation outlined above of breaking a message into segments, however, it goes one step further by waiting for a request from each recipient before transmitting subsequent parts. In addition to this improvement, Surefire Delivery will transmit data using the smallest publicised limitation - that is, the Outbound Rule specifies a split size, but the Advanced Settings of a recipient can specify a lower figure which can override the higher figure.
We will amend the Outbound Rule we created in step 1 by clicking the Edit button on the Outbound Rule menu. Then click the How tab. We tick Surefire Delivery and accept the default figures provided for Reply Check and Time out.
The Reply Check figure tells MailRules how often it should check for a reply from the message recipients (this behaves exactly like a scheduled Check Time). The Time out figure tells MailRules to abandon transmission after a certain time with no response from a recipient. Corresponding values are provided by the recipient on the Advanced Settings, on the Transport tab.
Click OK and our Rule has been amended to use Surefire Delivery.
What will happen now: Every Friday at 19:00, MailRules will find all files in our folder and any subfolders it may have. The files will be examined and a complete listing is transmitted to the recipient (if the Replace Files option of the Where tab is specified to be anything other than 'Always' the recipient MailRules will only select those files required thereby reducing transmission sizes). The recipient receives this initial message and returns a list of required files and suggested transmission size (Optimum File Size on the Advanced Settings, Transport tab). The sender will receive this and prepare the messages for transmission, broken into segments of the smaller of the two sizes. The first message is transmitted, when the recipient receives and places the data in local storage, it will send a reply to indicate that the transmission should continue.
This process not only bypasses ISP restrictions, but also restrictions placed on the Mailbox.
In this topic you have seen: