Because computer systems vary widely, the Postal Service does not recommend any singular or minimum system requirements for participation in this program. However, participants will need to use either Adobe Acrobat Reader or a different PDF viewing tool in order to view their proof of delivery records.
Currently, the Postal Service encrypts the bulk proof of delivery files using 128-bit RC4 encryption. Thus, the PDF files may be viewed using Adobe Acrobat versions 5.0 and higher. In the future, the Postal Service plans to move toward using 128-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) security in its PDF files for this program. Thus, to be prepared for this higher standard of security, customers may want to begin using Adobe Acrobat version 7.0 or higher, as lower versions of that software cannot handle the AES security.
Mailers who are participating in the Signature Extract File option and have chosen the dial-up transmission method can generally expect to receive data at a transfer rate of 1MB every 3 minutes. For example, a 20 MB file may take 1 hour to download. Mailers who have chosen the Internet transmission method for use with a broadband Internet connection may receive data three times to ten times faster than dial-up connections. The size of an individual proof of delivery record is, on average, 15 KB.
