User cannot receive 7MB file attachment in Exchange 2007

To send larger files try a service like Dropbox...just google it...it's great for sending pics also

Hello

Can you open powershell and run

get-transportconfig

let me know the results thanks

Sure thing, here is the result:

[PS] C:\Windows\System32>get-transportconfig


ClearCategories                : True
DSNConversionMode              : UseExchangeDSNs
GenerateCopyOfDSNFor           : {5.4.8, 5.4.6, 5.4.4, 5.2.4, 5.2.0, 5.1.4}
InternalSMTPServers            : {127.0.0.1}
JournalingReportNdrTo          : <>
MaxDumpsterSizePerStorageGroup : 18MB
MaxDumpsterTime                : 7.00:00:00
MaxReceiveSize                 : 20MB
MaxRecipientEnvelopeLimit      : 5000
MaxSendSize                    : 20MB
TLSReceiveDomainSecureList     : {}
TLSSendDomainSecureList        : {}
VerifySecureSubmitEnabled      : False
VoicemailJournalingEnabled     : True
HeaderPromotionModeSetting     : NoCreate
WritingBrandingInDSNEnabled    : True
Xexch50Enabled                 : True



[PS] C:\Windows\System32>

Did you check with these guys if the problem is at their end ? their send connector might have some rules regarding limits on attachment sizes ?

From: David Moore <dmoore@indytechpro.com>

The sender was able to email the attachment to me (I am with a third party provider not on the same server) and the file came through fine. I tried sending the file from my own server and I get the same response.

Any layers of AV / Postini / anything else in between ?
check org config > hub transport > Transport rules ?

@briousd: Hub Transport send/receive both at 20480

@sunnyc7: Incoming email is routed through MessageLabs by MX records, checked for spam or virus attachments by them, then routed to the WAN IP of the Exchange server. Nothing else in between. In fact this is only a 2 month old server and as I said, no other A/V or spam software is running on the server itself. Nothing in transport rules either.

alright i'm chasing a ghost. i'll keep looking

did you check transport rules @ message labs. Maybe there is some attachment blocking happening @ that end. ?

@sunnyc7: MessageLabs responded and said they allow attachments up to 50MB and there isn't any reason it should be getting blocked from their system.

I may be wrong, but it doesnt seem like you've given serious consideration to DropBox. (no, I dont work for them!) They give you 2 GB of very easily used space which can solve your specific problem and much more. I spent a long time looking for work arounds and other email platforms for sending larger files. Dropbox not only solved this problem, but gave me a multitude of other uses...the ability to share with more than one person easily....some easy back up space for incremental stuff I wanted backed up immediately...and remote access to stuff I needed from elsewhere....different servers or OS dont matter, good to send stuff between PC.Mac,Linux, etc...all with excellent encyption.  Obviously, there are a myriad of similar services.....but this is one of the best I've found...2GB of free storage for just about any file type. Real good for free...and worth checking out.

Go to Exchange 2007
toolbox > message tracking

enter this 2 email addresses and your server name

From: David Moore <dmoore@indytechpro.com>
To: Amy Bliss <abliss@slsindiana.com>

Put a date range of about a week.
We are trying to catch a message with the subject line

Subject: Re: FW: Still will not work

Lets see what did exchange do there ?

Anything in event logs -- looking for a event id corresponding to > email bounce

@sunnyc7: I will check these on the server tomorrow.

@siht: I have the same link copied in the original post and said I followed this already.

Thanks for the help

If you would get-messagetrackinglog and export it to CSV for that particular email (of course you will need to narrow the query to get only the relevant email). You will come to know of the problem.  
 You will see "Content Conversion" in source context for one of the rows for this email.
Content conversion happens when Exchange converts an internet (MIME) message into Exchange (MAPI) format, and vice versa. This conversion is done by Exchange while sending/receiving emails to/from Internet. Content conversion generally increases the message size - roughly by 30%. This explains why your email with 7MB attachment will not go even when the limits are set for 10 MB.
 Go to the last of this blog and it explains the content conversion in more detail and a link to MS article is also available.
http://exchangepedia.com/2007/09/exchange-server-2007-setting-message-size-limits.html

@RobNC: I would like to find a service that provides an easy pick-up and drop-off location for large files. This client is regularly needing 40-60MB files sent and right now I am manually uploading them to FTP and providing a link. However, I would like to solve the problem with Exchange first because it *should* be able to handle files up to 10-15MB.

I have looked at DropBox and I don't see how someone from the outside can place a file into a folder in your account, is this even possible? Is there another service that provides this type of functionality, both for the in-house user to place files in for download as well as an external client uploading files to us rather than emailing?

I made the suggestion because my wife's organization uses Exchange and has had a fit sending large files! I believe the situation with DropBox may be resolved based on a bit of trust, if possible. I'm fairly certain both parties can share the same log on information.I base this on knowing one advantage of Dropbox is that one can access the "box" from any computer. There are a couple of other similar services, let me see if I can remember their names!!!! I've also forgotten if they are free (LockBox is free up to 2GB)

@sunnyc7: Nothing comes up in the message tracking. I tried sending the message again to make sure I am not missing it and the email from me never shows.

I don't see anything related in the event log at the times the message was sent, though I am admittedly not very familiar with the server 2008 event log. Is there a specific location/error I should look for?

With the 30% overhead, I wonder if this message is still being limited by the original 10MB limit and I need to schedule a restart of this server to get it to activate the new 20MB limit I set?

I think I'm on to something. I've contact my own mail provider and they actually have a 10MB limit on outgoing messages (I assumed it was higher than this, my fault for assuming). I now believe the original delivery failure I posted above is from my own server because it doesn't mention anything from the MessageLabs server, which are more descriptive. When the original sender tried sending this, they received a NDR from MessageLabs. I attempted to send the message from a Gmail account which provides a 25MB send/receive limit. Here is the NDR I get back from Gmail:

-------------------------------------------
This is the mail delivery agent at messagelabs.com.
I was not able to deliver your message to the following addresses.

<abliss@slsindiana.com>:
68.166.153.236 failed after I sent the message.
Remote host said: 552 5.3.4 Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size


--- Below this line is a copy of the message.

Return-Path: <indytechpro@gmail.com>
X-VirusChecked: Checked
X-Env-Sender: indytechpro@gmail.com
X-Msg-Ref: server-14.tower-51.messagelabs.com!1282060445!41549364!1
X-StarScan-Version: 6.2.4; banners=-,-,slsindiana.com
X-Originating-IP: [209.85.215.48]
X-SpamReason: No, hits=0.0 required=7.0 tests=Mail larger than max spam
 size
Received: (qmail 14119 invoked from network); 17 Aug 2010 15:54:05 -0000
Received: from mail-ew0-f48.google.com (HELO mail-ew0-f48.google.com) (209.85.215.48)
 by server-14.tower-51.messagelabs.com with SMTP; 17 Aug 2010 15:54:05 -0000
Received: by ewy10 with SMTP id 10so4064210ewy.7
       for <abliss@slsindiana.com>; Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:54:05 -0700 (PDT)
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
       d=gmail.com; s=gamma;
       h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:received:in-reply-to
        :references:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type;
       bh=WKgqiO7fqVyw3anCeHSXUJHdHDJ85/QSr8yFACMFwU0=;
       b=HHkAsQak2QQMjKCL2V4qN/uzfnsyJWNmD/06bSycci7L9xfC0H8jGck4Q4j1hxqTXw
        iNVBXAcAcvNAZWFUS34+Kurppcrmk6Wz/fdIBDgipHt6fG2Es4k7HB+jgoUtFKrhP9FM
        d67/w6vJ5MSdg8ymHBICbUxYOn6UE9d+mVvFw=
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws;
       d=gmail.com; s=gamma;
       h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to
        :content-type;
       b=lu8cyUcR90vmoDUMIrzLv8zw44wV0wwr29lZXQE1K21bEiL8NvtRF+amV4gtry+6z3
        5Ac0iiVCswHdZdJ+GXUo+IcV1U34OfteqtHwu0f0DJVzj6jesBAZ3pcuDY3aEsu6WQWh
        Lp6psePteBFi0diqvE99SHX5VFxJzHgEbb8AU=
MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: by 10.216.176.83 with SMTP id a61mr5859974wem.47.1282060442684; Tue,
 17 Aug 2010 08:54:02 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.216.230.152 with HTTP; Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:54:01 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTi=2Ykz0etoVSkAre1v8OMtk7Ok35DOjEFOuO+Y6@mail.gmail.com>
References: <AANLkTi=2Ykz0etoVSkAre1v8OMtk7Ok35DOjEFOuO+Y6@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:54:01 -0400
Message-ID: <AANLkTimxpvo+HZbJ+-JTjfB2ft=PmQr72AcqhirAoV1j@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Fwd: Test
From: David Moore <indytechpro@gmail.com>
To: abliss@slsindiana.com
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=0016e65aeed644ae69048e06f500

--0016e65aeed644ae69048e06f500
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=0016e65aeed644ae60048e06f5fe

--0016e65aeed644ae60048e06f5fe
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Issue has been solved! This was a big oversight on my part, apparently the SBS server has 2 Receive connectors: one called "Default [servername]" and another called Windows SBS Internet Receive [servername]", which is placed below the Fax connector. While following the procedure from the blog I originally posted, it only shows changing the "Default" connector, which is what I did. I had to change the second to make it work. Is this an SBS only thing? And why didn't it show in the PowerShell output?

If the receive connector was rejecting the messages, would this explain why they never showed up in the event log?

@siht: even though I said I followed the procedure posted, the connectors were still the right track. Thanks for the input.

Thanks everyone for the help, you really provided a lot of insight to guide me in digging to determine where the problem was.

If the receive connector was rejecting the messages, would this explain why they never showed up in the event log?
>> Depends on your level of diagnostic logging.
If you crank it up, you can capture all of them...and that becomes a different problem. Logs filling up with all mails rejected.

Wonders of SBS !!