We're running Exch03 SP2. It's not tricky to configure the email size limits and I have done it many times till this issue raised. The issue is a 11MB email got rejected with 5.2.3 error which means size is too large for local queue. The global settings is 20MB for receiving limit Limits in SMTP virtual server is left 'unchecked' No settings are configured on user level and mailbox size limits for users are above 500MB. no connector is used I have restarted the SMTP service. The 2nd issue is when I troubleshooted this issue, I open the exchange log and found out the time stamps in log file are 5 hours ahead. The clock on server is current. Where can I correct the time stamp? Thanks in advance. Calvin

Most of those logs' times are GMT. As to the rejected message, I can't tell you anything based on what you've posted. Was that e-mail an internal e-mail or one sent outside? If it was sent outside, the bounce might have come fromt he destination e-mail system.Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

Ed, I was talking about incoming emails got rejected by our Exchange with 5.2.3 error. I tested one from my personal email with 11MB attachment and it got rejected. However, our incoming size limit is set to 20MB. Thanks for reply. Calvin

UPDATED: I increased the global "Sending message size" from 10MB to the same as "Receiving message size" at 20MB. Then the emails larger than 10MB have come in. I always have them in different sizes and never have problems. This time I don't know what has happened to my Exchange. Any advise? Thanks Calvin

From the external account you used, to which account did you send this to internaly? Is there a forward on this account? Check message tracking and post here. Sukh

It's important to remember that message sizes are message sizes, not attachment sizes. Attachments can have an impact on the message size of 120% or more of their original size due to encoding into ASCII, i.e., a 10-MB message can result in a 12-MB message size, plus the overhead of the message headers and body.Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

On Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:18:05 +0000, Ed Crowley [MVP] wrote: >It's important to remember that message sizes are message sizes, not attachment sizes. Attachments can have an impact on the message size of 120% or more of their original size due to encoding into ASCII, i.e., a 10-MB message can result in a 12-MB message size, plus the overhead of the message headers and body. That 120% is pretty conservative, Ed. Since Base64-encoding uses a 3x4 depack, the attachments size would grow by 1/3. Add in the additional 3 characters for each 72 characters of depacked data and you usually see an increase of about 1.4 times the original attachment size. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Hi Calvin, The problem occurs because of the method that the Exchange message categorizer uses to enforce message size limits. The categorizer does not differentiate between incoming messages and outbound messages, and it applies both message size limits to all messages. So when you global “sending message size” is 10MB and “Receiving message size” is 20 MB, you also cannot receive the emails larger than 10MB. You can get more information from this document: An e-mail message that is larger than the sending message size limit or the receiving message size limit is not delivered http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298572 Thanks, EvanPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hence why I said "or more".Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

Thanks Ed and Rich. Sometimes I thought it's simple, but it's more than I already knew. Thanks Evan for answered my question. Calvin