Outlook "Test Account Settings .... " Slow to Receive emails

[Fred Marshall]

I see a number of situations with Windows XP where using Outlook's "Test
Account Settings ...." works except that Receiving mail is very slow - even
if there's no mail to receive.
On some computers, some of the time, Receiving fails. Less frequently, Send
fails too - which seems to guarantee that Receive will fail - it's always
the last process to complete.

I have had ISP tech support folks suggest that one is lucky if Receiving
using "Test Account Settings ... " works at all! They suggested making your
own test messages and send/receiving them - which is what I'd do anyway if
the "Test Account Settings .... " wasn't so handy.
- I have one case where Receiving fails about 25% of the time using this
test.
- I have another case that would not work initially but eventually began to
work all the time (slowly).
At any rate, when the test fails, the user gets failures with normal email
processing some of the time.

Why is it slow? Any ideas? I have run the XP Winsock Fix.
Can it be made faster? Any settings that would make a difference?
Why might it fail when on the same computer Outlook Express works fine all
the time with the same account settings?

Thanks,

Fred

 

[Fred Marshall]

Assuming that the slowness is at the ISP, then why does Outlook Express wait
without failure and Outlook fails / times out? Where are the settings that
determine how long Outlook waits? I've tried all the GUI settings that I
could find. So, I suspect the settings are either hard-coded or in the
registry.

Fred