SSL extremely slow?

Hello there,

I'm using Entourage 2004 to send & receive mail using an SSL server for
POP & SMTP. All the advanced receiving & sending options are set
correctly... in fact, it's actually sending & receiving mail just fine
from this SSL server.

The problem is that Entourage 2004 is EXTRAORDINARILY SLOW in "logging
on" to the SSL server. It literally takes Entourage 2004 about 1-2
minutes to get past the "logging on" part of the progress bar before it
starts downloading/sending the new mail. Once it gets past that
"logging on" part of the progress bar, everything is fine... but every
time I click on "send & receive", it gives that lengthy delay all over
again.

We have actually tested this with other SSL servers (such as GMail),
and we see the EXACT SAME BEHAVIOR!

HOWEVER -- using ANY OTHER EMAIL CLIENT, such as Apple Mail or Eudora
-- gives us NO DELAYS WHATSOEVER. Logging into & checking/sending mail
from this other email clients give us absolutely NO DELAY at all.

Can somebody please explain why Entourage 2004 has such a problem with
logging onto SSL servers, and is Microsoft (the Mac user's greatest
arch enemy of all times) doing anything about it?

Thanks!
Scott

scotty321
Sat Mar 26 20:47:37 CST 2005

Well, nobody on this group seems to have had an answer to this, but I
spoke with my web hosting company and they found a "timeout" setting in
the secure POP3 server software, and setting the timeout setting in the
secure POP3 server software to 0 seems to have fixed the major delays.
Not sure why the timeout setting would have anything to do with a delay
in LOGGING ON to the SSL server, but it fixed the problem nonetheless.
Thank goodness I'm with a responsive web hosting company that really
cares about their customers and will do anything to help them out. I'm
with hostbaby.com, for those that are interested.