Sprint HTC Hero :: Problems Sending Large Files

I've been havng trouble emailing pictures with my HTC hero ("unable to send mail" notices) and wonder if others have had similar experiences. The problem seems to be worse with anything greater than the lowest resolution. Even 400kbyte pictures are a problem. I assume this is just a file transfer problem, not a camera app problem (the app from which the file is mailed). Mails w/o attachments go thru 100% of the time.

I spoke with someone at sprint today, and the first thing they told me was that I need to have at least three bars of signal strength, then I was told that higher resolution pictures can't be sent from the hero.

Given that Sprint does not have more that two bars in most of northern new jersey, this is a bit of a problem. If this is true, I don't think they should be calling this a data service.

For the most part, internet browsing and even video like youtube and TED work fine, and most the time I can get an EVDO connection.

Playing with it a bit, it looks to me like the issue is maintaining a solid data link to upload the file. I'd expect better with a TCP/IP connection, as I've had some experience designing that sort of thing. Late at night, if I get two bars and set the phone down so the signal strength does not waver, I can generally send even a 5 mpixel picture that's nearly 1000k.

I've tried this with the mail set to allow up to 1000k transfers and with no limit on transfer size, and that has no effect.

Some specific questions I have are:

1) Are others having this problem?

2) Anybody have a solution?

3) Anybody notice if it's network congestion related?

4) Anybody know anything about messing with the TCP/IP settings like timeouts and retrys to hold a connection on a spotty rf network?