Slow IMAP

[Derek Standley]

Hi

Although I have and am responsible for many exchange server systems, I
recently needed to install a 150 user mail server on a smaller budget than
usual. I chose a program called Mailtraq and have been very impressed with
it so far. I do have one problem which appears to be the fault of Outlook
2003. This problem does not happen in Thunderbird or Eudora but I love
Outlook and want to stay with this very smart and popular client system.

The problem is:

To make the sent mail go to the IMAP servers sent box instead of the local
sent box I have to create a rule. This tells outlook to copy sent mail to a
different sent folder. We send mail mostly with 3MB attachments and when you
click send the email stays on the screen while outlook transmits the mail to
the IMAP servers sent box. At this time and for a few minutes outlook and
windows is non responsive and you cannot do any work. Once it has finished
outlook then goes back to normal and begins transmitting the message from the
outbox via the SMTP server. At this point you can work on the computer again
as outlook sends in the background.

I just downloaded Outlook 2007 beta and tested this problem. It has been
fixed; Outlook 2007 actually asked me if I would like to use a different
folder and although it carried out two background sends/syncs it didn`t stop
responding or stop me from working at all. Unfortunately 2007 is not
available for a long time and would be an expensive exercise to upgrade 150
computers when Outlook 2003 is perfectly adequate.

Is there a fix for the problem in 2003 or a way around it using a better rule?

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

Regards
Derek Standley

 

[Patrick Schmid]

I don't know of any fix/workaround for 2003.
IMAP support in Outlook 2007 has been improved dramatically. The ability
to store the Sent Mail folders in the IMAP account is just one of the
improvements. One of the other improvements you discovered is that IMAP
operations are conducted in the background in contrast to 2003.
I'd say that Outlook 2003 is not adequate for your purposes. However, I
can understand that upgrading 150 clients would be quite an expense.
Maybe you should consider Thunderbird or Eudora for this particular
setup.
BTW, Outlook 2007 B2TR will expire March 31, 2007.

Patrick Schmid