My recent attempts to transfer Schultz documentation to
Harry Couchman in Australia has provoked an interesting
response.   Perhaps others among us have found a better
way.

The process I ended us using emerged out of several
unsuccessful attempts to similarly help other people.
Unexpected problems emerge as if by magic.

On the initial go-around, I ordinarily do not know what mail
reader the recipient uses, which could be the normal unix
based PINE (with which I'm comfortable), a proprietary mail
system within a company that sometimes blocks attachments,
a neighborhood BBS, a MAC  BBS, or an offline mail reader.
Also, I have no way of initially determining how comfortable
the recipient is with such a process.

As a consequence, I've had more failures than successes, and
our recent success transferring documents via the 'Net
perhaps may have been more good luck than good management'
probably because Harry appears to be a computer professional
and knew what I was trying to do, even if I didn't.

While I'm reasonably comfortable in using a DOS based
computer, I am not comfortable with unusual processes such
as what we recently did.   So, I'm hoping to determine a
process that might be a little simpler and more reliable.

I am aware of file compression utilities, and routinely
use PKZIP and PKUNZIP.   I did not compress the .PCX files
because I did not know if the target computer had the same
utilities to decompress.   One sample document was squirted
through successfully, and based on that the other 9 were
sent the same way.

The most significant problem I've encountered is a target
person who uses unix based uqwk to create an offline mail
packet *before* scanning incoming mail.   I'm unaware of any
DOS based .QWK offline mail readers that can successfully
extract a MIME attached file in PINE.    Has anyone found
one that will do this?

In theory I could have attached all 10 .PCX files to a single
email message.   However, each was about 200k in size and I
feared the resulting message may have become too large for the
'Net to handle.    Does anyone know if there is a practical limit
to the size of a message + attachments that can be successfully
transmitted?   So, simply to be on the safe side, I sent through
each .PCX file uncompressed and attached by itself to an email
message.

I wonder if others have tried something similar, and if so
would you consider sharing the complete process?   I'm particularly
interested in trying to come up with some sort of process that
will have a reasonable chance of success most of the time.

As we speak, I'm trying to squirt a database .DBF file to a
friend in Florida who is using a older MAC with an InterNet
access point on a local DOS based BBS.   So far, all my
attempts to get something through to him have failed.
In this case, a .PCX file is obviously not an option.

Any other thoughts?

Regards,

Terry

 [ Terry,
 [ Many Unix systems allow an arbitrary "maximum" to be set for the
 [ size of a message.  In addition, there may be one or more "relay"
 [ machines that the message has to pass through.  The most restrictive
 [ machine will break your message.  I'd advise against sending 2meg mail
 [ messages, but they often work.
 [ Jody