How often should I check mail?

Eudora Tip #216/24-March-2004
How often should I check mail?

Visit the Special menu and choose Settings. Scroll to Checking Mail and you’ll notice that in the “Connection” section you can set Eudora to Check mail every [so many] minutes.

So, what number should you enter there?

Well, maybe you’ll leave it blank, and in fact not check the checkbox at all. This is probably appropriate for people who use a modem to dial up who will check mail manually whenever they want to see what’s waiting for them.

If you have an “always-on” connection, such as a cable modem then you might like to set Eudora to check for mail at regular intervals.

Every time you check mail with a POP account Eudora first contacts the server and they exchange some information about who does what, a username and a password. Then Eudora discovers how many messages are waiting and sets about retrieving them.

All the while hundreds or thousands of other users are doing the same thing and the server copes with all of this magnificently. This shared resource though does rely on people being moderate in their demands.

If you’re checking mail regularly then you should leave a decent interval between checks. Five to ten minutes seems reasonable to me – after all if there’s a specific item you’re waiting for then you can check manually.

If you check mail too frequently you may find your mail host locks you out for putting too great a load on the server.