I have friends who are temporarily living without high speed internet service. Because they are on very slow dial-up, they asked friends to NOT send them any emails with photo (or other types of) attachments.

While I was away at Xmas, they left me a voice mail complaining that an email I sent them had clogged up their system. It apparently took them hours to resolve this, which they finally did by going to a shop which had high speed access and downloading it there. They also had to telephone their service provider in Canada to obtain their assistance.

My email contained a link to an internet site.

I feel very, very badly about this.

Can someone please explain why a link would slow down email transmission?

I can understand that photos embedded or attached to an email are slow because they are such big files, but I don't understand why simply providing someone with a website URL would do so.

That's strange Marion! There's no reason for a link to slow down e-mail transmission as far as I know... actually I just experimented with this sending two identical e-mails to myself, one being the text a link and the other just normal text... the size is the same and they both arrived well... actually the one containing the link arrived first
Someone else might have a clue, though...

Marion,

Is it possible that the email contained hidden info, an attachment or forwarded email within the email itself?

Emails sent formatted as HTML, with stationary, with forwards, with embedded signatures, etc. will become very large if not careful.

I too use dialup and my emails can shut down my system if they are larger than say 500 kb. but smaller than that there should be no problem for them.

As they are using dialup, they should find out how to read their email online so that they can remove offending emails before they go to the computer based POP3 email system.

The email contained a link to the Chocolate and Zucchini website, which, as far as I can figure out, doesn't look as if it would cause a slow down. (It's a thread where Clotilde describes her disastrous attempts at making the no-knead bread with European flour in a cold apartment.)

My friends are now living in Europe (southern France), but still using a Canadian service provider (Bell Canada's Sympatico) until they can get high speed is installed in their village in February. I am going to suggest that tthey go first to Bell Canada's site to preview their emails before it goes through the POP3 email system onto their computer.

I also sent one email which had an attachment to a one-page Excel file I created (which was 20.5 KB). Surely this couldn't clog up their system?

It's a bit bizarre.

Hi Marion - how was your Christmas?

I just did a test sending that link to my other email address - it was 1kb sent and 1kb when it was received?

Doesn't make sense?

Liz, thanks so much for testing that out! I, too, just don't understand what I did wrong.

P.S. Yes, Xmas was good -- well, as good as it can be when you cook two meals a day for 86 and 83 year-old parents -- who want to know when lunch and dinner will be served! Not exactly my eating timeframe, but you got to love them for being open to whatever I wanted to cook!

Marion, can you send me the same email (forward the one you sent to them) and then I can look to see what was so big. cristina@expatsinitaly.com

Christina, I have just sent you the offending email.

Well, the offending email sent to Christina proved that it could not have been the culprit.

And today, I received an apology which confirmed that it was NOT my email which had caused the problem.

I am relieved. I hate causing problems for other people, and it's good to know that my email wasn't the culprit.

Thanks to everyone who provided such helpful advice!