I know this is not a windows list and I have never yet asked a question like this on here before, but perhaps there is someone who knows the answer to this question.
Netscape and Mozilla support "offline" modes where a user can sync themselves to the server and then be offline. This would minimize traffic to only specific times (perhaps there are times where your network is noticibly better than other times?).
Neither POP3 nor IMAP nor anything else will fix a problem at the network level. This seems obvious. Either the network works well, or it doesn't. Applications at layer 7 of the OSI model suffer when the lower layers don't operate correctly.
You could also do things to cover up the network problem like putting a mail server on board the vessel and letting that server take the errors and hits between the main server and itself, where they'll only be seen by the administrators in the server logs. End-users get mail once it's fully transferred to the mail server on-board the vessel. A cheap older machine with a couple of redundant hard disks, at least RAID 1 (if there's no admin on-board) and fetchmail could do this job and it could be built in just a few days including test time in port where the network is good. Tests while the network is bad could be simulated.
Spend the energy fixing the network. Tell people it's broken. Don't just cover it up right away and pretend that problem is not there.
It's the only thing that will help long-term. Anything else is just an unprofessional hack.
If e-mail is a *requirement* for the vessels (bosses say it HAS to work), then so is a good network connection.
Making a bad network "just work" by futzing around with the mail client just dooms you to failure again someday in the future when people think things "are working" and they start using the network for other things besides mail.
Nate Duehr, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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