outlook 2003: scheduling send/receive

[The Little One]

I have a client who has Outlook 2003 set to check his email every 2 minutes
when Outlook is running, and every 5 minutes when closed.



He's having a problem at just after a few minutes past midnight every night,
whereby he gets an error:



Task XXX - Receiving' reported error (0x8004210A) : 'The operation timed out
waiting for a response from the receiving (POP) server.

If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator
or Internet service provider (ISP). The server responded: -ERR authorization
failed'



The ISP say there is no obvious reason for this to be happening, and the
only possible cause might be that the backup process which starts at
midnight every night is putting a load on the server for a short time, which
makes his email unavailable. But they obviously have to do the back up.



The client's problem is that the error doesn't clear itself until he gets
into the office the following morning and clears it manually. Whilst this
isn't a huge hassle ordinarily, when he's away from the office he forwards
his emails to an IMAP account which he can check from any terminal. If he's
not in the office to clear the error, then the emails don't get forwarded -
much more of a hassle for him.



My questions are:



1) Is there any reason why the error isn't clearing itself? I also run
Outlook 2003 and have always found that if an email address is unavailable,
Outlook just keeps trying according to check it, and once the service is
available again, everything goes back to normal.



2) Is there a way that Outlook can be setup so that during certain hours
during the night, Outlook doesn't try to perform a send/receive? That might
avoid the problem?



Thanks.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Unless he uses a 3rd party app to check mail, he's checking it every 2 min
when online and every 5 when offline, not closed. I'm surprised the ISP
didn't tell him to reduce the check time to every 8 -10 min minimum to be
kind to their servers.

When outlook runs into errors caused by checking email too often, it causes
it to lock up and often requires a restart. What is probably happening is
before the midnight mail check times out, outlook initiates a second one
(because they are too close together) and this causes both to wait for a
human response. If he raises his time to 8 min, it should work fine.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

 

[The Little One]

Why he would want to be checking his email so frequently, even when he's
asleep I don't know?!

The ISP did suggest that he lengthen the time between checks, but his
argument was that it works fine all day up until midnight - so the problem's
not with him.

I guess though if the servers are busy doing the daily backup, they'll be
slower to respond to the mail check, which is where the idea of outlook
initiating a second check before the first finishes comes into play?

Unless he uses a 3rd party app to check mail, he's checking it every 2 min
when online and every 5 when offline, not closed. I'm surprised the ISP
didn't tell him to reduce the check time to every 8 -10 min minimum to be
kind to their servers.

When outlook runs into errors caused by checking email too often, it
causes it to lock up and often requires a restart. What is probably
happening is before the midnight mail check times out, outlook initiates a
second one (because they are too close together) and this causes both to
wait for a human response. If he raises his time to 8 min, it should work
fine.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

I have a client who has Outlook 2003 set to check his email every 2
minutes when Outlook is running, and every 5 minutes when closed.



He's having a problem at just after a few minutes past midnight every
night, whereby he gets an error:



Task XXX - Receiving' reported error (0x8004210A) : 'The operation timed
out waiting for a response from the receiving (POP) server.

If you continue to receive this message, contact your server
administrator or Internet service provider (ISP). The server
responded: -ERR authorization failed'



The ISP say there is no obvious reason for this to be happening, and the
only possible cause might be that the backup process which starts at
midnight every night is putting a load on the server for a short time,
which makes his email unavailable. But they obviously have to do the
back up.



The client's problem is that the error doesn't clear itself until he gets
into the office the following morning and clears it manually. Whilst
this isn't a huge hassle ordinarily, when he's away from the office he
forwards his emails to an IMAP account which he can check from any
terminal. If he's not in the office to clear the error, then the emails
don't get forwarded - much more of a hassle for him.



My questions are:



1) Is there any reason why the error isn't clearing itself? I also run
Outlook 2003 and have always found that if an email address is
unavailable, Outlook just keeps trying according to check it, and once
the service is available again, everything goes back to normal.



2) Is there a way that Outlook can be setup so that during certain hours
during the night, Outlook doesn't try to perform a send/receive? That
might avoid the problem?



Thanks.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Exactly - the server is busy, so it can't respond as quickly.

Regardless of who he thinks the problem is with, he really needs to lengthen
the time between checks. It might work fine for him, but he could be
preventing other users from timely access to their email as the servers can
only accept so many connections at once and he pretty much has one of those
connections tied up between the time he arrives at work to dismiss the
dialog and midnight. There is absolutely no reason he needs to check his
email that often.

--

Why he would want to be checking his email so frequently, even when he's
asleep I don't know?!

The ISP did suggest that he lengthen the time between checks, but his
argument was that it works fine all day up until midnight - so the
problem's not with him.

I guess though if the servers are busy doing the daily backup, they'll be
slower to respond to the mail check, which is where the idea of outlook
initiating a second check before the first finishes comes into play?

Unless he uses a 3rd party app to check mail, he's checking it every 2
min when online and every 5 when offline, not closed. I'm surprised the
ISP didn't tell him to reduce the check time to every 8 -10 min minimum
to be kind to their servers.

When outlook runs into errors caused by checking email too often, it
causes it to lock up and often requires a restart. What is probably
happening is before the midnight mail check times out, outlook initiates
a second one (because they are too close together) and this causes both
to wait for a human response. If he raises his time to 8 min, it should
work fine.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

I have a client who has Outlook 2003 set to check his email every 2
minutes when Outlook is running, and every 5 minutes when closed.



He's having a problem at just after a few minutes past midnight every
night, whereby he gets an error:



Task XXX - Receiving' reported error (0x8004210A) : 'The operation timed
out waiting for a response from the receiving (POP) server.

If you continue to receive this message, contact your server
administrator or Internet service provider (ISP). The server
responded: -ERR authorization failed'



The ISP say there is no obvious reason for this to be happening, and the
only possible cause might be that the backup process which starts at
midnight every night is putting a load on the server for a short time,
which makes his email unavailable. But they obviously have to do the
back up.



The client's problem is that the error doesn't clear itself until he
gets into the office the following morning and clears it manually.
Whilst this isn't a huge hassle ordinarily, when he's away from the
office he forwards his emails to an IMAP account which he can check from
any terminal. If he's not in the office to clear the error, then the
emails don't get forwarded - much more of a hassle for him.



My questions are:



1) Is there any reason why the error isn't clearing itself? I also run
Outlook 2003 and have always found that if an email address is
unavailable, Outlook just keeps trying according to check it, and once
the service is available again, everything goes back to normal.



2) Is there a way that Outlook can be setup so that during certain
hours during the night, Outlook doesn't try to perform a send/receive?
That might avoid the problem?



Thanks.

 

[The Little One]

He has flatly refused to lengthen the time between checks! He says he
receives time-critical communications and has to check his email that often.
I can't see how extending it to 10 minutes is going to make much of a
difference, especially during the night when he's tucked up in bed and not
even at his desk!!

So I told him that if he's not willing to try it, then there's nothing more
I can do to help his situation. Clients - who'd have 'em?!

Thanks for your help. It was greatly appreciated.

Exactly - the server is busy, so it can't respond as quickly.

Regardless of who he thinks the problem is with, he really needs to
lengthen the time between checks. It might work fine for him, but he could
be preventing other users from timely access to their email as the servers
can only accept so many connections at once and he pretty much has one of
those connections tied up between the time he arrives at work to dismiss
the dialog and midnight. There is absolutely no reason he needs to check
his email that often.

--

Why he would want to be checking his email so frequently, even when he's
asleep I don't know?!

The ISP did suggest that he lengthen the time between checks, but his
argument was that it works fine all day up until midnight - so the
problem's not with him.

I guess though if the servers are busy doing the daily backup, they'll be
slower to respond to the mail check, which is where the idea of outlook
initiating a second check before the first finishes comes into play?

Unless he uses a 3rd party app to check mail, he's checking it every 2
min when online and every 5 when offline, not closed. I'm surprised the
ISP didn't tell him to reduce the check time to every 8 -10 min minimum
to be kind to their servers.

When outlook runs into errors caused by checking email too often, it
causes it to lock up and often requires a restart. What is probably
happening is before the midnight mail check times out, outlook initiates
a second one (because they are too close together) and this causes both
to wait for a human response. If he raises his time to 8 min, it should
work fine.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/


I have a client who has Outlook 2003 set to check his email every 2
minutes when Outlook is running, and every 5 minutes when closed.



He's having a problem at just after a few minutes past midnight every
night, whereby he gets an error:



Task XXX - Receiving' reported error (0x8004210A) : 'The operation
timed out waiting for a response from the receiving (POP) server.

If you continue to receive this message, contact your server
administrator or Internet service provider (ISP). The server
responded: -ERR authorization failed'



The ISP say there is no obvious reason for this to be happening, and
the only possible cause might be that the backup process which starts
at midnight every night is putting a load on the server for a short
time, which makes his email unavailable. But they obviously have to do
the back up.



The client's problem is that the error doesn't clear itself until he
gets into the office the following morning and clears it manually.
Whilst this isn't a huge hassle ordinarily, when he's away from the
office he forwards his emails to an IMAP account which he can check
from any terminal. If he's not in the office to clear the error, then
the emails don't get forwarded - much more of a hassle for him.



My questions are:



1) Is there any reason why the error isn't clearing itself? I also run
Outlook 2003 and have always found that if an email address is
unavailable, Outlook just keeps trying according to check it, and once
the service is available again, everything goes back to normal.



2) Is there a way that Outlook can be setup so that during certain
hours during the night, Outlook doesn't try to perform a send/receive?
That might avoid the problem?



Thanks.