Email Attachment and Sending Limits for Google, Yahoo, AOL and a Lot More Providers

Email Attachment and Sending Limits for Google, Yahoo, AOL and a Lot More Providers

 

I use AOL a lot so I don’t run into file size limits very often as they allow up to 16 MB attachments.  However, I noticed that when I try to send files to some of my friends and family, they have difficulty receiving the larger files. I decided to do some research to see what other providers offer in terms of maximum file sending size.  Check out this article by altrue.com.  They do an excellent job of explaining the limits established by some of the top providers.

Major Internet Service Providers – Email sending limits

This article contains information about the email send limits (rate limit) of most important Internet Service Providers, as we collected it from our Easy Mail Merge customers, web resources or directly from the support desk of ISPs.  The information is intended as a guide only.  Your ISP can change its outbound email policy at any time without any prior notification.  It is always a good idea to contact your email account provider and ask about the email send rate, before proceeding with a mass email campaign.

This article was last updated in November 2007 and it displays the SMTP email send limit (or rate limit) for the following Internet providers: Verizon, Comcast, EarthLink, Cablevision/Optimum, Road Runner, Cox, AT&T Yahoo!, Charter, BellSouth.

Verizon Email Send & SMTP Limits
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a verizon.net email account:

  • Verizon email send limit – no more than 100 recipients per email message AND max 500 emails (recipients) per hour
  • Verizon other SMTP limits – max 2mb per message
  • Verizon email-outbound policy – http://www2.verizon.net/policies/email.asp
  • Verizon SMTP restriction expiry method – the restriction is automatically lifted 24 hours after the email send limit was reached.

Comcast Email Send & SMTP Limits
Below you can find the Comcast email send or rate limit for Comcast high speed internet customers. Please note that Comcast can also block port 25 for your connection (triggering the error message: “Error #1: Port25.Secure(SSL); no Socket Error: 10053. Error Number 0x800CC0F”), in order to prevent you (or viruses on your computer) from sending emails using your own SMTP agent:

  • Comcast email send limit – no more than 1000 recipients per day
  • Comcast other SMTP limits – max 10mb per message
  • Comcast email-outbound policy – http://www.comcast.net/help/faq/index.jsp?faq=SecuritySpam17867
  • Comcast SMTP restriction expiry method – the restriction is automatically lifted 24 hours after the email send limit was reached.

EarthLink Email Send & SMTP Limits (“SMTP Rate Limiting”)
When you reached your EarthLink email send limit, you will receive the following error message from the EarthLink SMTP server: “error 554: www.earthlink.net/go/bulk – Outbound message limit exceeded”. The following restrictions apply when sending emails from an EarthLink internet connection:

  • EarthLink email send limit – max 1000 recipients per day
  • EarthLink other SMTP limits – N/A
  • EarthLink email-outbound policy – http://kb.earthlink.net/case.asp?article=85283
  • EarthLink SMTP restriction expiry method – A member of EarthLink ‘s Abuse team will investigate the circumstances that led to your SMTP privileges being suspended. If it is deemed that your use was legitimate, then your SMTP privileges will be reactivated within 24 hours.

Cablevision Email Send & SMTP Limits (Optimum – OOL)
Cablevision / Optimum does NOT allow customers to send emails using an email client program or SMTP mail server, unless the customer subscribed to “Optimum Online Boost” or “Optimum Online for Business”.

  • Cablevision/Optimum (OOL) email send limit – maximum 50 recipients at one time
  • Cablevision other SMTP limits – max 20mb per outgoing message
  • Cablevision/Optimum email-outbound policy – http://www.optimum.net/Article/Terms
  • Cablevision SMTP restriction expiry method – N/A.

Road Runner Email Send & SMTP Limits
If your account has reached the email send limit, you will receive the following error message: “ERROR:5.7.1:550 Outbound Mail Refused – YOUR_IP_ADDRESS”. The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Road Runner internet connection:

  • Road Runner email send limit – max 1,000 recipients per day per IP
  • Road Runner other SMTP limits – max 5mb per message
  • Road Runner email-outbound policy – http://help.rr.com/HMSFaqs/e_outbound_email_policy.aspx
  • Road Runner SMTP restriction expiry method – the suspension is automatically lifted after 24 hours

Cox Email Send & SMTP Limits
Cox did not publish the official email send limit for Cox High Speed Internet subscribers. According to the Cox web site: “Specific email sending limits are not published because they vary from time to time depending on a variety of factors“. We strongly advise you to contact the Cox support department before sending out large amounts of emails.

  • Cox other SMTP limits – max 10mb per message
  • Cox email-outbound policy – http://www.cox.com/policy/limitations.asp

AT&T Yahoo! Email Send & SMTP Limits
Please note that, according to the AT&T Yahoo! Membership Agreement, AT&T Yahoo! can assess a charge of $50.00 per day for unintentional violations or $500.00 per day for deliberate violations of their unsolicited email policy. The following restrictions apply when sending emails from an AT&T Yahoo! Internet/email connection:

  • AT&T Yahoo! email send limit – no more than 100 recipients per email message
  • AT&T Yahoo! other SMTP limits – max 20mb per message, max 50 file attachments
  • AT&T Yaho0! email-outbound policy – http://edit.client.yahoo.com/cspcommon/static?page=tos
  • AT&T Yahoo! SMTP restriction expiry method – penalty charges may apply

Charter Email Rate Limits
If you are a Charter Internet access residential customer and you receive the following error message when trying to send emails: “421 Connection Refused – Customer has exceeded the maximum number of messages allowed per hour”, it means your account SMTP access was temporarily blocked. The following restrictions apply when emailing from a Charter connection:

  • Charter email send limit – maximum 50 recipients / emails per hour
  • Charter other SMTP limits – max 10mb per message
  • Charter email-outbound policy – http://www.charter.com/Visitors/Policies.aspx?Policy=6
  • Charter SMTP restriction expiry method – wait an hour to send additional emails or brake up the recipients number into smaller groups.

BellSouth Email Send & Rate Limits
BellSouth does not publish a clear email send limit: “Sending mass, unsolicited e-mail by Service users is prohibited. BellSouth Internet Services reserves the right, in BellSouth’s sole discretion, to determine whether such email constitutes unsolicited messages or transmission. Sending large volumes of unsolicited e-mail to a single user, or group of users, commercial or otherwise, by Service users is prohibited.”.

  • BellSouth email send limit – BellSouth’s sole discretion
  • BellSouth other SMTP limits – max 10mb per message
  • BellSouth email-outbound policy – Acceptable Use Policies
  • BellSouth SMTP restriction expiry method – BellSouth Internet Services may immediately terminate any account which it determines, in its sole discretion, is transmitting or is otherwise connected with any ‘spam’ or other unsolicited bulk email. In addition, because damages are often difficult to quantify, if actual damages cannot be reasonably calculated then BellSouth Internet Services may seek liquidated damages of five dollars (US$5.00) for each piece of ‘spam’ or unsolicited bulk email transmitted from or otherwise connected with your account.

 


 

Web Email Account Providers – Email sending limits

Important note: This information is intended as a guide only.  Your email account provider can change its email policy at any time without any prior notification.  It is always a good idea to contact your email account provider and ask about the email send rate, before proceeding with a mass email campaign.
 

Google Gmail Email Send Rate Limit & Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Google Gmail account:

  • Gmail email send limit – no more than 500 recipients per message for the Gmail web interface, or max 100 recipients if you are using an email client software.
  • Gmail other SMTP limits – outgoing messages sent via Google Gmail can not exceed 10Mb per email (including attachments)
  • Google Mail Policy – http://www.google.com/mail/help/program_policies.html
  • Google Mail SMTP restriction expiry method – the restriction is automatically removed within 24 hours after the limit was reached.

MSN Hotmail Email Send Rate Limit & Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Hotmail account:

  • Hotmail email send limit – no more than 100 recipients per day.
  • Hotmail other SMTP limits – outgoing messages sent via Hotmail can not exceed 10Mb per email (including attachments)

Yahoo Mail – Email Send Rate Limits & Other Email Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Yahoo Mail account:

  • Yahoo Mail email send limit – no more than 100 emails or recipients per hour
  • Yahoo Mail other SMTP limits – max 10Mb per message for the free Yahoo Mail Service, or 20Mb per message for Yahoo! Mail Plus
  • Yahoo! Anti-Spam Policy – http://docs.yahoo.com/info/guidelines/spam.html
  • Yahoo Mail SMTP restriction expiry method – N/A

Lycos Mail – Email Send Limits & Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Lycos Mail account:

  • Lycos Mail email send limit – max 25 recipients per message and max 250 emails per day
  • Lycos Mail other SMTP limits – Lycos Mail does not have a limit to the attachment file size at this time.
  • Lycos Email Policy – http://info.lycos.com/legal/mail_terms.html

AOL Email Send (Rate) Limits
AOL imposes a rate limit on an AOL member when a member exceeds the acceptable number of email messages sent in a given time period. The following restrictions apply when sending emails from an AOL connection:

  • AOL email send limit – no more than 100 recipients per message or 500 recipients per connection
  • AOL other SMTP limits – max 16mb per message
  • AOL email-outbound policy – http://postmaster-us.info.aol.com/ipt/
  • AOL SMTP restriction expiry method – N/A
via help.altrue.com

 

Network Neutrality Explained

Repost from Mobydisk:

Diane checks the internet. Her home page is Google, which is her favorite search engine. Today however, Diane’s system can’t connect to google.com. So she tries her next favorite search engine, MSN. msn.com seems to be working, but it is very slow. Diane has a DSL connection through her local phone company, Edison Telephone. Thinking there is a problem, she calls Edison Telephone’s tech support. They inform her that they have partnered with Yahoo as part of their “preferred portal program” so her connection to Yahoo should be twice as fast as it used to be. However, she will no longer be able to access Google, and other search engines such as msn.com and askjeeves.com will only be offered at a reduced speed. When Diane asks why this is, she is offered a $10 per month upgrade to Edison Telephone’s “universal” system which gives her full-speed access to any site on the web. As a bonus she can also stream podcasts to her iPod at high speed. When Diane points out that she was already able to stream audio just fine, they inform her that Apple has not paid for high speed access, so podcasts may skip or have lower quality.

Infuriated, Diane cancels her service and chooses to switch to another provider. Ooops! There is only one telephone company in her area, and the cable internet service provider also has a “preferred portal program” that does the same exact thing.

Does this sound silly? Until recently, this scenario was not possible. Telephone companies, internet service providers (ISPs), and transportation companies were defined as common carriers under U.S. law, which means that they must be neutral to whatever they carry. That means that UPS can’t prioritize packages sent by large companies or delay delivery to packages to smaller companies or individuals. It means that telephone companies can’t send higher-quality audio to customers who also use their cell-phone service. And internet service providers can’t insert ads into competitor’s web pages or slow-down data to competitor’s customers.

Now this is all at risk. DSL service providers are no longer “common carriers” and the FCC rules on network neutrality allow loopholes that the telecommunications companies want to exploit. No one ever intended companies to start breaking the internet into pieces. Be aware that this only affects the U.S. – everyone else will have free and clear internet access.

What is Network Neutrality?

Network Neutrality is the basic idea that anyone carrying network traffic must treat all the data the same. They should not filter, prioritize, or alter the content in ways that are not desired by the customer.

Network neutrality is fairly simple, but it has become a highly politicized issue since the telecoms have an opportunity to charge customers more for less. Fake grassroots efforts have been confusing the issue, making it difficult to see what network neutrality is, and what it is not.

What isnt Network Neutrality?

This is very important because there is significant misinformation on Network Neutrality.

  1. Network Neutrality is not new:The entire world currently has a neutral system in place today. The telecommunications companies want to change to a non-neutral system.
  2. Network Neutrality is not price fixing:Various articles have claimed that network neutrality involves fixing prices. This is not true.
  3. Network Neutrality is not regulation:Network Neutrality currently exists, and doesn’t require any special bodies to enforce, measure, or regulate it. There is no organization that checks to make sure there aren’t ads in your phone calls, or that call quality is the same. It just isn’t necessary.
  4. Network Neutrality has nothing to do with competition:Some phony grassroots organizations claim that the issue is neutrality -vs- competition. Competition is not affected by neutrality.
  5. Network Neutrality is not about a “tiered” network:Networks are already tiered. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc. each pay more for their internet access than any individual person does.  They have special high-speed connections because they they serve so many more customers.
  6. Neutrality is not evil just because Microsoft supports it:Some articles point out specifically the Microsoft supports network neutrality as a way to draw people to emotionally conclude that neutrality is evil. Any company or individual that has a site on the internet is threatened if net neutrality is taken away.
  7. Network Neutrality has nothing to do with taxation:One organization hints that network neutrality involves some sort of taxation, which is not true.

Who do I trust?

Telecommunications companies do not want network neutrality. Neither do those companies that produce the telecom hardware. Both these groups stand to gain from eliminating network neutrality. On the other side of the issue is everyone else: consumers and corporations big and small. Anyone who has a web site wants the internet to remain neutral. The inventor of the world wide web, Professor Tim Burners-Lee, strongly supports network neutrality as summarized in this CNET news article.

Be aware that there are some organizations that try to get people to write to their representatives against net neutrality. They are creating fake grassroots campaigns to confuse people. But it is easy to see who is involved by looking at their list of supporters which includes every major telecom company in the United States. The site even sports a big “Say no to government regulation” slogan, even though network neutrality is not regulation. Another such organization is netcompetition.org which is run by a telecom lobbying group who states their mission is to “…exploit emerging opportunities…”

For accurate information, try some of the links below.

References

Examples

Network neutrality violations are happening today. For example, NextGenTel in Norway limited the bandwidth of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.

Confusion in the press

Even the press is very confused on network neutrality. Here are some examples of articles that fall for some of these myths:

Chicago Sun-Times

The Chicago Sun Times article on network neutrality makes some of the mistakes cited above. They believe that network neutrality might be a good thing, but that we don’t want government regulation unless absolutely necessary. They want to rely on the free market and wait until there are some real violations before imposing government regulation. They don’t want to stifle the telecom companies ability to provide higher speed access.

Their reasoning is logical, but the authors are misinformed. They have fallen for some of the network neutrality myths listed above.

  1. The mistaken belief that network neutrality is new and that network neutrality is a form of government regulation.

    “…but we don’t think the government should get involved until there is clear evidence that involvement is needed…”

The authors want to wait until network neutrality violations happen to confirm that the market cannot fix them before imposing the law. This would make sense except that we previously had network neutrality, and it was removed under pressure from telecoms who have publically announced plans for non-neutral features. The groundwork is already set, and violations have begun.

  • The mistaken belief that competition exists and can solve the problem.

    “…the market itself under existing laws, will provide the best solution to the problem…”

  • How many high-speed internet providers exist in most areas? Usually there are two: The local telecom company, and the local cable TV provider. Since both are arguing against network neutrality, there are no alternatives for people to switch to. Since there is no free market, the free market cannot solve the problem.

  • The mistaken belief that network neutrality is related to paying for higher speed access.

    “…If some companies, such as a seller of downloadable movies, want to pay an Internet provider more to guarantee speedier delivery, shouldn’t that be allowed?”

  • It certainly should, and this is allowable under network neutrality. But telecom companies want to eliminate network neutrality because they are not speeding-up internet movies, but slowing down everything else, then requiring customers to pay to speed them back up. The situation is similar to telecoms selling a service that blocks telephone solicitors, then selling the ability to get around those blocks back to the telecom solicitors.)

    With all of the talk about Net Neutrality in the news, I thought this site (Mobydisk.com) gave a pretty simple explanation. Also check out http://bit.ly/bIFgFv, the article titled How the FCC Bungling Led to Google-Verizon Net Neutrality Deal.