ItsGeekToMe.co

Q: I have been trying to email document attachments with both a gmail and a mchsi account. Both have failed. I have never had a problem in the past. What could have happened to my system to cause this? Thanks. Love your column!!

– Beth C.
Santa Rosa Beach, Florida

A: You’re welcome, Beth.  Thanks for being a fan, and reader.  I’ve gotten several very nice and complimentary e-mails recently, so thanks to you, and to others who have taken the time to write in with such supportive and complimentary words.

There are a couple of different things that could cause a problem such as you’re describing.  Let’s discuss the background first, and then I’ll get to some possible fixes.  For those not in the know or simply unfamiliar with the terminology, an “e-mail attachment” is a file (document, picture, music, etc) that is uploaded to an e-mail server along with a message and travels with the message to its recipient.  The file is “attached” in the sense that it is embedded within the mail packet, but is treated as a separate entity by your e-mail software, and often represented with an icon that looks like a paper clip.  When everything is working correctly, attachments can be downloaded and saved separate from e-mails just like they would from any media.  However, unlike hardware media, most e-mail servers have a size limit on files that can be attached to e-mail (both individually and cumulatively).  There is no exact standard on this size limit, and I’ve seen them range from as little as one or two to as much as 100 megabytes.  These limits are imposed by the system administrator, mainly to prevent users from allocating a disproportionate amount of space on the server, which, if unchecked, would be an easy vector for a denial-of-service attack.

I don’t have a great deal of familiarity with Mediacom’s e-mail, which is what an mchsi account implies, but I do use Google’s Gmail on a regular basis, and for several different e-mail accounts, including the one I use to receive e-mail for this column.  If you’re having problems with both, that implies that the problem is common to both services, so the very first thing you should do is the old practice of checking that all your software is up to date.  For Internet Explorer, that means making sure you’re running version 9 or higher, and using Tools->Windows Update to make sure you have all the latest patches and security updates.  Also, empty your cache, delete cookies, and make sure pop-up blockers aren’t blocking pop-ups from Google/Gmail.  Check your version of Adobe Flash, since some webmail services (including Gmail) use Flash to make file uploading more user-friendly.  If none of those help, I’m going to have to get Gmail specific.  First of all, I know that this sounds rather dumb, but make sure you’re signed in to Gmail.  If you’re running Google toolbar, make sure it shows the correct name of the account you’re using on the right side of the bar. Then from within Gmail, click the little gear icon that is just above the uppermost e-mail shown in the current view.  Please be careful about which icon you click, because the last time I told someone in the column to “click the gear icon” I received a barrage of complaints because there are multiple gear-shaped icons used by various tools and web pages to represent “Setup”, and many people picked the wrong one.  Assuming you click the correct one you should get a little drop-down menu that contains stuff like “Display Density”, “Settings”, “Themes”, “Send Feedback” and “Help”.  Select “Settings” and on the screen that comes up, find “Browser Connection”.  If neither of the buttons is selected, it’s a pretty good indicator you’ve found a problem.  I recommend you select “Always use https”, and select “Save Changes”.  When you’re done, close your browser and re-start Gmail.  You should now be able to properly attach files within Google’s size limit, which is 25 megabytes, even though many recipients’ ISPs don’t allow them to receive files that large.