External User Email Limit Advice needed

[requested89]

I was asked the following question by a potential employer and too be perfectly honest I genuinely didn't know the answer. If anyone can help me understand potential limits/reason for the future I would appreciate it.

What e-mail limits (if any) would you set up for an external user dialling into the network (5mb bandwidth) on a 512k broadband connection, and why?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

 

[Zelandakh]

well the bottleneck is the 512kb broadband. That is 64KB/s. In one minute they can upload 3.5MB. I'd have that as their send limit - maybe 4MB to be safe.

They can download at the same speed too. Could have that.

However, given that it is broadband and will not time out, limits can create problems with business continuity. Therefore given that a limit can stop the employee doing their work I would not put a limit on them.

This shows that you understand per email vs mailbox limits, that you understand bandwidth and transfer speeds and that you understsand the needs of the business.

i.e. there isn't a right answer.

 

[requested89]

Hi Zelandakh thanks for the response it's pretty helpful. I'm not 100% sure I understand though.

You say 'the bottleneck is the 512kb broadband. That is 64KB/s. In one minute they can upload 3.5MB. I'd have that as their send limit'

What is the problem regarding the 64KB/s / 3.5Mb / 1min? If the user wants/needs to send a 10mb email what reasons are there to stop him if he is willing to wait 3 minutes?

Are per email / per mailbox limits as follows: 3.5MB per email would stop the user sending an email more than 3.5MB but they could send 10 * 3MB emails if they chose to whereas per Mailbox the limit would be 1 * 3.5MB or 10 * 35KB etc up to a max of 3.5MB.

I still don't understand why I should need to limit him though?

Any help is appreciated,

Chris

 

[Zelandakh]

Exactly Chris.

If you impose a limit that corresponds to 1 minute of upload, you save the user locking themselves from using the PC for 2 hours if they are really stupid. You also get in the way of them sending something slightly larger than their limit.

If I had been asked the question, I would have responded as I did that one minute is about as long as you'd want to be uploading which is about 3.5MB or whatever it is. But that impacts the business and therefore there should be no limits.

The limit is per EMAIL, so yes you could send multiple emails just below the limit.

 

[requested89]

Thanks you seem to know what you are talking about so maybe you can help out with another question I didn't understand. They asked me 15 questions, 13 of which I could answer confidently but this next one and the email question stumped me:

How would you configure a laptop to ensure that you could remotely manage it from your company network whilst ensuring that the laptop remained secure?

I would understand if it was a question of how would you allow access TO the network FROM the laptop whilst keeping the network secure but I have never thought of it this way round where keeping the laptop secure was the issue.

Any ideas?

Thanks again.

Chris