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PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 12): 552 Error: message too large - email returned

PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 12): 552 Error: message too large
I am getting the above error in an email returned to me when i try to send large 9mb+ emails to my exchange server from outside my domain. Below is the a copy of the actual email i am getting back.
I am running exchange 2003 standard sp1. I do not have any ISA servers.
The message limits are set to 500000kb incoming and no outgoing limits.
This i checked in the message delivery properties of the global settings tab in exchange. I have looked everywhere for a solution but do not know what else to do. Please help.
thank you

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

restrada@yalemortgage.com

Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 12): 552 Error: message too large

----- Original message -----

Received: by 10.114.47.1 with SMTP id u1mr2693322wau.1174924862239;
Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:01:02 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.114.79.10 with HTTP; Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:00:56 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <e9f6ea8c0703260900x6ba620e5x24c748f3e6dcb14b@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 12:00:56 -0400
From: "Roy duque de estrada" <rduque41@gmail.com>
To: "Roy Estrada" <restrada@yalemortgage.com>

Subject: 10mb test after limit set to 500mb
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;

boundary="----=_Part_266765_28602411.1174924856884"

------=_Part_266765_28602411.1174924856884
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_Part_266766_19941411.1174924856884"

------=_Part_266766_19941411.1174924856884

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

what a good day

----- Message truncated -----

b0fh

Did you try restarting the Microsoft Exchange services after changing the limit?

yalemort

ASKER

i coudl not as it is in live productiona nd i can knock anyone of email.
but hte original limit was set to 1000000kb. 1gb, the 7mb files im sending are obviously nowhere near that.

b0fh

What about checking possible limits under Servers, Protocols, SMTP, Virtual Server, Properties, Messages tab?

Sembee

That isn't an Exchange message.
Do your emails go out directly or through a smart host?
Do they go through any third party applications?

Simon.

yalemort

ASKER

Going out is not the problem..its when we are getting emails. Internally we can send emails, the size doesnt matter. But when i am getting emails from the outside they are not coming in past 7mb. i dont know if htis matters but when emails from the outside come in the size is being read incorrectly also. fore xample i sent myself a test email with a 7mb zip file and it came through, except it read as 9mb. the only thing in the email is the 7mb attachment, nothing else.

and no the email is coming directly to my exchange server, not passing through anything else.

yalemort

ASKER

b0fh: to answer your question i looked in there and the limit settings are not checked.

Sembee

It isn't Exchange generating the message. Do your emails come in without being scanned by anything? AV, antispam etc?

Simon.

yalemort

ASKER

we have a symantec brightmail server that it goes through. but its not listing it as spam and its not in the symantec spam mail quarantine.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Sembee

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yalemort

ASKER

i found that i do have a 10mb limit set in the damn symantec brightmail server! sorry about hte cursing its just frustrating because i didnt set this up so im working with someone else mistakes. but htat still doesnt explain why an 8mb email wont show up. i think its because its being read wrong somehow..like i said before when i tested it with the 7mb email it came through, but it read as 9mb. so 2mb are being added on somehow. any ideas?

Sembee

There is always overhead in the message. An 8mb email will be larger than 8mb.
Then you get the problem of how that is counted. 8000k is not 8mb.

Simon.

yalemort

ASKER

I agree, but 2mb? thats a lot of overhead. i get almost no overhead when its internal.

Sembee

Which format was the message sent in? That can have a big impact on the amount of overhead.

Internal messages are different as they are not converted to text - they are stored in their native format.

Simon.

yalemort

ASKER

HTML, it seems like the bigger the attachment the bigger the overhead of the email.
i sent a 9mb file and it reads it as 12mb.
i sent a 5mb file and it reads it as 7mb.

Sembee

Try it in plain text (which is what all emails are anyway) and see what happens then. However your numbers are along the lines I would expect.

Simon.

yalemort

ASKER

plain text email did the same thing

Sembee

Are you putting disclaimers or anything like that on the messages? That can account for bloat.

Simon.

yalemort

ASKER

no disclaimers, just a plain email with one line of text saying "testing" and the attachment. which is a zipped file. they are pictures inthe zip file but they are not zipped in size at all, when i extract them they are the same size as the zip file.