Like several other people in the UK, I've got a client who uses SBS with a
standard modem for Internet access. He has to pay for telephone calls. He
uses the POP3 connector to collect mail. No active caching on ISA, no
Windows Update on PCs or server, no regular AV updates.
Originally, the POP3 connector was set to collect mail every 30 minutes
Mon-Fri 9am - 6pm and I tried a custom schedule for the SMTP connector, so
that it would only be used Mon-Fri 9am-6pm twice an hour (like POP3). I
could see that using a custom schedule makes the connector available in 15
minutes blocks, and the help suggested that during these blocks the
connector would dial, at other times it would wait for something else to
open a connection.
The client's first phone bill was 175GBP (up from 50GBP dialling directly
from a PC). The phone bill suggests that the SMTP connector dials for every
outgoing email, whatever the time of day, and also holds the line open (idle
time set to one minute before hang up) during the 15 minute blocks from the
time the mail was sent until the end of the block. The client is not
pleased. Changed schedule so POP3 dials 5 times a day and changed the SMTP
connector back to Always use. Next phone bill was 150GBP.
How can I tame the SMTP connector so it queues outgoing email and only sends
when there's already a connection or at least only dials once every two
hours? I searched the archives for this list, but this connection is
behaving quite as the info I've found suggests it should.
Client is a small non-profit and isn't allowed to get a fixed rate/no call
charge dial-up line as they share a switchboard with a hospital.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Kathy