Why does it take so long to log in?

The single most common cause of a slow WebMail login is a large INBOX. WebMail has to download the message headers for all messages in a folder the first time it is visited. When you fist log on to WebMail it must load all messages fron the INBOX. The greater the number of messages in the INBOX, the longer this process will take.

For a fast login to WebMail, or any IMAP client, keep the INBOX trimmed to at most a few hundred messages. You can do this by creating folders, and moving older messages to those folders.

Last modified: November 4, 2005