Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
If your e-mail server has such a restriction, here's a problem you've probably encountered a time or two: Mail
tries to download your messages, but it gets stuck because one of your messages is too large for your server to
handle. Mail can't get past the too-large message, so all your other messages get backed up behind it.
Another good time to skip large messages is when you're using a slow Internet connection. For example, if you're ac-
cessing the Internet over a dial-up connection, you might want to skip messages larger than, say, 100K. When you
have MacBook Air on a faster connection, be sure to remove this threshold so you don't miss anything important.
Solving this problem often requires a call to the mail host's tech support line (never a pleasant experience), but
Mail offers a work-around. You can configure it not to download (or, more accurately, to ask you whether you
want to download) messages larger than your POP mail server allows. Here's how it's done:
1. Choose Mail
→
Preferences.
The Mail preferences appear.
2. Click the Accounts icon.
3. In the Accounts list, click the icon for the POP account you want to work with.
4. Click the Advanced tab.
5. In the Prompt me to skip messages over text box, type the number of KB you want to use as a
threshold.
For example, if your POP mail host restricts messages to 4MB, then you'd type
4000
in the text
box, as shown in Figure 6.5.
6.5
To avoid problems that overly large messages create, configure Mail so it prompts you before downloading messages
larger than your POP mail server allows.
