I never have problem with *my* software or hardware either, and we have a LOT of clients with Outlook checking every 2-5 minutes... only time we ever need to increase it is if someone gets a lot of mail in a 1-2 minute period of time... only one occassion that's ever happened and that situation no longer exists. I'm sure some of them are even checking once per minute, which even I believe to be a little too often. Our "policy" (NOTE: *NOT* "our standard") is 3 minutes.
Bruce, I do see one element of your position that I understand... should a client become abusive towards me or my staff, REGARDLESS the cause, of course we ask them to take their business elsewhere. And if they expect absolute perfection 24/7... well, I love it when companies promise that, because when they can't deliver, we get their clients. We aren't perfect either... we invite our clients to seek service elsewhere if they're really that unhappy... when their requests become outright unreasonable from our position. Don't swing the experience axe too widely... a lot can change in 15 years, and a lot has. What you experienced 15 years ago has about 1/4 the relevance in today's world (unless you are still programming using punchcards, and considering adding that 16K RAM module to your PC). To me, a "standard" is something like an RFC, not what some guy with a bunch of experience has to say. What we're discussing here is a "best practice" -- how often should a POP3 client check for mail? And the answer is... "it depends". Number of clients, capabilities of your current hardware, bandwidth. But a more useful answer is, "most of us are successful with a 2-5 minute setting". To me, if the majority of the community is successful with a setting, that easily makes it a best practice, or (tread lightly)... a standard. If your standard is 15 years old, it's time to consider that it COULD be revised to fit today's hardware, software and bandwidth capabilities... AND take into consideration the needs of the clients (whom we all need to survive). If your standard in today's world is to tell your clients to check for email every 20 minutes, you're kidding yourself if you don't think they're either (1) ignoring you and setting it to less, or (2) hitting send and receive as often as they like. In today's world, barring all the things that can delay (or, gasp!, even lose!) a message, an email can with all fairness expect to travel to the other side of the globe in a matter of a minute. Does it work all the time, 100%, 24/7/365, of course not. But it IS the norm, and your head is in the sand if you think it's not. If a client complains too much, we CAN always tell them our policy: "Don't just assume that a message is going to arrive at all, let alone on time. It may be the norm, but it doesn't always happen... have a backup plan for critical information delivery." Managing customer expectations should not detract from a best practice... it's okay if they expect email to go from A to B in two minutes or less, IF they understand that it might not ALWAYS be the case... or if it might not get there at all. My clients all understand this, and are as polite as Mr. Rogers when they call -- and they only call after they've experienced the delay for more than just a few messages. And I appreciate their call, because I'm too busy to sit around all day watching my spool directory. And if checking every 2-5 minutes for mail is causing your mail server(s) some trouble, I'd find that very interesting indeed... it's been a very long time since i've seen a post here (or anywhere) that would indicate that frequent POP checks are causing someone trouble. I'm not trying to flame you, just challenging you to at least "consider reconsidering" your position on this topic, with the result possibly making your happy clients even happier when you tell them "hey, go ahead and set your mail reader for a 5 minute interval... it's be just fine." > -----Original Message----- > From: Bruce Barnes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 2:14 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Any positive experience with v8.1? > > > Go ahead and laugh, guys. I'm pretty accustomed to the abuse > that you dish > out to other users of this forum on a regular basis. That > doesn't mean that > you are correct. > > I went thru the real sneaker-net phase while some of you were > still in Mom's > womb. > > Maybe our policies are why we never experience difficulties > of any kind with > either our IMail software or hardware installation. > > Bruce Barnes > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Travis Rabe > Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 12:31 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Any positive experience with v8.1? > > > WOW! > > Note-to-self: > > According to ChicagoNetTech Inc, sneaker-net is a viable solution for > people who need e-mail quicker then three hours. > > > I must say I am really surprised that someone with that much > experience > looks at e-mail the way you do. You might want to reconsider > your view or > you may find yourself left behind the technology tidal wave. > However, I > realize you may not get this for up to 3-hours so I will put > it in the post > and send it via Pony Express. > > Travis > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > Bruce Barnes > > Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 10:18 AM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Any positive experience with v8.1? > > > > > > Disagree all you like, but my statement is based on more > than 15 years of > > experience with e-mail servers and 35 years of experience with > > computers and > > networking in general. > > > > Pushing something, in this case e-mail, to do something it's not > > designed to > > do, ie: lock a file while a remote client (not on the same > machine) checks > > for e-mail and, if idap is enabled, parses all of the files > and mailbox > > trees, will not behave well in any environment if it is done too > > frequently. > > > > At some point both the hardware and software have to be able to > > have time to > > do their associated tasks. > > > > Again, disagree with me all you want, but e-mail is NOT > instant messaging. > > Instant messaging is a totally different application that routes > > a burst of > > data to a specific IP address without having to send it to a file > > that holds > > it to be checked and responded to. > > > > If someone wants e-mail, then they need to treat it like > e-mail. If they > > want instant messaging, then get instant messaging, but don't > > whine and cry > > about something not working in the manner in which they > perceive it should > > work. > > > > There are standards for everything and somewhere a whole > generation of > > computer crybabies who demand their own way decided to > throw them out the > > window. I don't tolerate that kind of attitude or > behavior, and I won't > > tolerate my employees, customers or clients telling me how a > > product that is > > supposed to do one thing should be pushed to do something > else. If they > > abuse my staff, my network, my services or me, they get > shut off and are > > free to go elsewhere. > > > > Bruce Barnes > > ChicagoNetTech Inc > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of RMilner > > Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 11:59 > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Any positive experience with v8.1? > > > > > > I respectfully disagree. Even the IMail Webmail in 8.1 says > it autochecks > > for new mail every 5 minutes. > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > Bruce Barnes > > Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 12:44 PM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Any positive experience with v8.1? > > > > > > No e-mail client should ever be checking for e-mail any more > > frequently than > > every TWENTY minutes. If you check for e-mail more frequently, > > it can LOCK > > the mail box and the queue on ANY server, IMail, Exchange, > or any other > > server, and substantially slow the message delivery within > the server. > > > > E-Mail is NOT instant messaging. The standard for e-mail > > delivery is still > > about 3 hours - NOT instant. > > > > Bruce Barnes > > ChicagoNetTech > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of RMilner > > Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 11:23 > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Any positive experience with v8.1? > > > > > > Can anyone address why it now takes anywhere from 10-25 > minutes to send an > > email between 2 Internal Mailboxes in IMail 8.1 when this > happened fairly > > instantly in 8.05? It also takes 10-20 minutes if you have > > forwarding set up > > in IMail Administrator between the mailboxes. This happens even > > if it's the > > only email in the system, so its not a load issue. > > > > It appears to be a queue issue. As the queue cannot be > re-run any faster > > than 10 minutes, it now takes a minimum of 10 minutes to > send an email to > > another person on the system - if that person has their mailbox > > (such as to > > their assistant) it takes an additional 10 minutes for the > > assistant to get > > it - and that is based on Outlook checking for messages just > > after the queue > > runs. If Outlook only runs every 2-5 minutes, then it takes > upwards of 30 > > minutes to send emails internally. > > > > This really is unacceptable. > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Bridges, > > Samantha > > Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 11:06 AM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Any positive experience with v8.1? > > > > > > No problems here. Install was easy and quick. > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Travis Rabe [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 11:01 AM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Any positive experience with v8.1? > > > > > > I had some troubles with the upgrade there were in part as > a result of > > my own doing. IN the end the HF2 fixed what I was seeing. > Overall, I > > am very pleased with 8.1 > > > > > > Travis > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > Bud Durland > > > Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 7:22 AM > > > To: iMail Forum > > > Subject: [IMail Forum] Any positive experience with v8.1? > > > > > > > > > I'm contemplating upgrading from 8.05 to 8.1hf2 this weekend. > > > > > > I don't use LDAP (previous versions seemed "broken", so we use > > > something > > > else) > > > > > > I do have approximately 100 users, and all use IMAP to > access their > > > mail. A very few (<10) occasionally use WebMail > > > > > > We process approximately 1500 messages a day > > > > > > We use Declude Junkmail and Antivirus > > > > > > Has anyone have a positive experience upgrading to 8.1 in > this kind of > > > > > environment? > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > illigitimi non carborundum > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > Bud Durland, CNE > Mold-Rite Plastics > > > Network Administrator http://www.mrpcap.com > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > > List Archive: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > > Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > > > > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > List Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > --- > [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus] > > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > > > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > > > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
