Sounds like UBB isn't willing to change with the times. It isn't 1996 any more.
You're right, it isn't 1996 any more. So stop treating your users like its 1996, and start treating them like its 2015 by allowing them to upload 4MB and 6MB sized photos.
You're probably running your site on recent hardware which can certainly handle it. Your users are probably on much better devices and mobile plans today, which where not available in 1996. When was the last time you saw one of your members write, "56K WARNING" or "DSL ONLY" on an image thread? My guess is, probably not within the past decade.
For the majority of mobile users, modern Android devices have an option built in to their Mobile Chrome called, "Data Saver." When that feature is on, it will use Google's servers to compress html and images on pages users visit, before downloading those pages -- not including SSL pages. This option is enabled by default, since at least July 2012 -- about the time Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) was released.
How to do this today:1. Control Panel > Display Options > General > Topic Display Options
[...]admin/gen_display.php
Max Size for inline uploaded images:If an image is attached to the post, if it is smaller than the specified size (in Bytes) it will be displayed in the post.
Set this to something reasonable, to show most inlined images to your users. I suggest 6291456 (6MB)
Note: 1048576 Bytes = 1 MB. Any image that is smaller than this size, will be shown to users who can view attachments.
2. Control Panel > Group Management
[...]admin/group_forumperms.php
In the "
Users" row, click on "
Forum"
In the "
Maximum size of file attachments" section, I suggest entering 4194304 (4MB) for each of the forums you want to allow file attachments within. Max size set in php.ini, so you may not exceed that size. This is the maximum size PER EACH attached file.
While you're on that page, also have a look at the "Can Download attachments" (this includes viewing of attached images) and "Total # of file attachments" sections. Make adjustments as needed per group.
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I also noticed that your site is still running UBB.threads 7.5.4.2p2. That was released in January 2010. A lot has happened since then. Why not upgrade to UBB.threads 7.5.9, released January 2015.
