OL2002: How to Minimize the Connection Time in Outlook Remote Mail Sessions (296237)

SUMMARY

You may experience unexpected long connection times when you download new headers or process marked message headers. Both Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002 appear to stop responding (hang), and data flow is not monitored over the Remote Access Service (RAS) connection. During this time, the CPU displays up to 100% utilization.

When you synchronize offline folder (.ost) files or retrieve headers by using remote mail, the status bar displays that synchronization is occurring, but there is not any progress for several minutes. There is very little or no network activity during most of this time. After the delay, the Sending Outgoing mail dialog box appears, and the rest of the synchronization or header retrieval proceeds as expected.

MORE INFORMATION

You can use the contents of a folder without being connected to the network with offline folder (.ost) files when you use Microsoft Outlook with the Microsoft Exchange Server information service.

Offline folder (.ost) files are mirror images of the folders that are in your mailbox on the Exchange Server computer. The Exchange Server updates them during synchronization. Usually, you initiate a full synchronization when you shut down both Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002. You connect to the Exchange Server over a dial-up connection to check for any new messages.

The remote mail functionality in both Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002 is designed to minimize the connection time by downloading the message headers first, and then providing you with the option to selectively mark single items to download.

When the remote mail header session connects to the Exchange Server, the header information for all the messages that are stored in the Exchange Server Inbox is downloaded. The information is then processed locally and new message headers, if any, are displayed in both Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002.

If the Microsoft Outlook client uses a slower CPU, this local processing can take as long as the time it takes to download the message headers. During this time, the dial-up connection is maintained.

Before the message headers are downloaded, both Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002 compare the folder hierarchies in the .ost file to the folders in the Exchange Server mailbox. It then downloads the folder hierarchy and the folder views. A Synchronizing Folder dialog box, with a progress bar, appears during this action, and a new synchronization log is recorded and stored in the Deleted Items folder.

Best Practices

Because the Remote Mail session length is dependant on the number of messages in your Inbox, use the following information to minimize the connection time when headers for new or marked messages are downloaded:

Do not store everything in your Inbox.
Create a folder hierarchy that meets your needs.
Move messages to other folders after you read or delete them.
Create rules to move less important messages from your Inbox to other folders.
Archive older messages in personal folder (.pst) files.

For additional information about remote mail and .ost files, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

195435 OL2000:(CW) What are Offline Folders and How Do You Use Them?

195436 OL2000:(CW) Remote Mail, Offline Folders, and Working Offline

161889 XCLN: OST and PST Quick Reference