Why does it take so long to process my email?

[mustang25]

I'm wondering if there is a way to speed up the downloading/processing of my
emails. I am running Outlook 2003 on a 1.8Ghz laptop with 1 GB RAM and a
cable Internet connection.

I am the web administrator of our company's website so any email sent to our
domain with an invalid user ID(?) is sent to me. In other words,
(e-mail address removed) comes to my Inbox. Needless to say, I
receive a lot of spam which is OK since Outlook's Junk Folder weeds most of
it out for me. My problem is that it takes so long to download the emails.
For example, I just finished waiting 15 minutes to download about 450
messages at a combined size of 2.75MB. However, when I receive one email
with an attachment of, say, 10MB, it zips right into Outlook at the blink of
an eye.

 

[Vanguard]

I'm wondering if there is a way to speed up the downloading/processing
of my
emails. I am running Outlook 2003 on a 1.8Ghz laptop with 1 GB RAM
and a
cable Internet connection.

I am the web administrator of our company's website so any email sent
to our
domain with an invalid user ID(?) is sent to me. In other words,
(e-mail address removed) comes to my Inbox. Needless to
say, I
receive a lot of spam which is OK since Outlook's Junk Folder weeds
most of
it out for me. My problem is that it takes so long to download the
emails.
For example, I just finished waiting 15 minutes to download about 450
messages at a combined size of 2.75MB. However, when I receive one
email
with an attachment of, say, 10MB, it zips right into Outlook at the
blink of
an eye.

Outlook cannot proceed any faster than the response provided by the mail
server. With 450 mails awaiting in your mailbox, it will take 450 RETR
commands, waiting for the mail server to proffer the content of each one
separately, followed by sending 450 DELE commands (unless you configure
Outlook to leave messages on the server). That means Outlook has to
wait until the mail server sends each mail's content followed by OK
before it can send the next RETR command for the next mail item. Sounds
like your mail server is slow to proffer each mail item. When it does
proffer a mail item, there is no further delay and that mail item
downloads quickly so its size only dictates how long before it
completes. When it finishes with that RETR, the next one begins but
there could be a delay after the RETR before the mail server actually
starts delivering the mail item's content.

Similarly, you may be using anti-spam software with its e-mail scanning
enabled. That means it needs to interrogate each mail item when it is
sent. The item has to be downloaded and then interrogated by the AV
program and that takes time. The delay occurs after receiving the mail
item, not while it is downloading, so this incurs a delay between each
RETR command; i.e., RETR-data-interrogate(delay), and repeat. Try
disabling the e-mail scanning feature of your AV program.

Personally I don't see a need for a wildcarded username at a domain so
that all e-mails (not to real recipients at that domain) get accepted.
If the sender doesn't have a clue to whom they are supposed to send
their e-mail, do you really want it? Spambots work that way so you are
leaving yourself wide open for that abuse. Since Outlook will first
download all mail items from your mailbox BEFORE it applies any rules or
filters, you are wasting a lot of time and disk space to download crap
that you, Outlook, or an anti-spam filter must then delete.

 

[mustang25]

Vanguard,

Many thanks for the reply. It makes sense. I think my web hosting company
requires that all non-valid email addresses go to an actual address. I could
be wrong though. I also use it to track which companies are sharing my email
address. For example, when I signed up for my Microsoft.net account, I used
(e-mail address removed) for my email address. That way if I receive spam at
that address, I know how they got it. It is amazing how many companies
actually do NOT share that info. It seems to be only the obvious ones that
do.

I'll contact my ISP and see if there is anything on their end that is
contributing to the issue. Thanks again.