Title:  How often should Outlook Express check for new mail?

Question:
My desktop email program offers a lot of confusing configuration options
for things like checking folders for new messages, synchronizing folders
and more. I've heard that some of these settings do unnecessary things 
even slowing the overall service. How should I set things up to get the
information I need in a timely way without a lot of wasted computer work?

Answer:
We are finding a large number of people using the "deskmail" email servers
(Homer, Dante and Aagaard account owners) who are getting very poor
response and a high number of IMAP timeouts. Performance on the servers
for ALL users is being effected, and performance for specific users may be
so poor as to prevent desktop clients from getting successful updates
(which the client may report as a failure of the email server). This is a
preventable situation through configuration of the desktop email client.

We need to reach the folks who are affected and get their email program
configurations corrected.  Until this situation is brought under control,
all Uniform Access email users will suffer slower response times.

The main culprit seems to be Microsoft Outlook Express, although Microsoft
Outlook or any other email program can cause problems.

In general, the desktop client should not be set to poll for new mail at a
short interval, and if polling is enabled at all, all folder
synchronization should be disabled.

Configuration instructions for desktop email software can be found 
starting at:

http://www.washington.edu/computing/email/programs.html