Why do some hosts limit the size of your mailbox? or file sizes?

I don't see how it matters as long as you keep within your space. Must be to keep down on bandwidth, but if you keep within your bandwidth, what's the problem?

Well, when mail is heavily used, it can be a big resource hog. Also, it's a good way to get someone to pony up for a bigger plan with more mailboxes! =D

I've seen loads on servers rock sky high simply because someone was sending or receiving a very large email (e.g. ~ 100MB). So I think on a shared server it's reasonable to limit the maximum sizes of emails to a reasonable level (e.g. 20+ MB, otherwise it's better to use FTP anyway).

Regarding the number of mailboxes, it is likely that each user of a mailbox will check his or her email about once a day on average. This eats up processor time, as each time someone checks for new messages the server will need to open a POP3 connection, and also locally check the user mailbox. Now if you put several domains on a server and do not limit mailboxes, you might end up with thousands of mailboxes or more, each being checked once a day or even more often. This may cause load problems.

My recommendation is that if you're at a stage where you possibly need thousands of mailboxes, it might be a good idea to actually get a dedicated server. :)

Originally posted by chrisb
Why do some hosts limit the size of your mailbox? or file sizes?

I don't see how it matters as long as you keep within your space. Must be to keep down on bandwidth, but if you keep within your bandwidth, what's the problem?

SCP/FTP/SFTP are for file transfer
E-mail is for short TEXT messages

I hate getting large messages via e-mail.

Originally posted by avara

Regarding the number of mailboxes, it is likely that each user of a mailbox will check his or her email about once a day on average.


Really? I think most people check their messages several times an hour. Most people I know configure outlook to check for messages every 2 minutes.

Originally posted by uuallan


Really? I think most people check their messages several times an hour. Most people I know configure outlook to check for messages every 2 minutes.

I'm talking averages here. I check mine every 60 seconds, but I know of a lot of people who only check theirs every couple of days, or sometimes not at all. Anyway, I did say at least once a day. :D

BUT the point is that each time email is checked, it takes system resources. So the more active email accounts you have on a server, the higher the loads.