the present invention provides is a file delivery system for transmitting files to recipients using email , which may be used with existing email infrastructures . high volumes of large file attachments may be handled by routing attachments independent of an associated email . an attachment distribution system extracts the attachments of emails at mail servers and routes them through a hosting server thereby alleviating server loading on the mail server . the system may be configured for delivery optimization , recipient authentication and delivery confirmation . the system examines emails flowing through a distributed network of mail servers , and may invoke attachment extraction based on configurable rules like attachment size and sender validity , and move the attachments over the internet or intranet to a remote server that is capable of delivering the attachments to the email recipients .