What determines how quickly e-mail is downlaoded?

Forums › Desktop computing › What determines how quickly e-mail is downlaoded?

gustov

138 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 10

Topic # 151347 22-Aug-2014 10:03

I switched my webhosting, and my new webhosting company, although located in NZ, actually has its servers in the USA. Since then I've notice my e-mails take considerably longer to download.

A 3Mb e-mail that I could retrieve in a couple of seconds with my fibre optic connection, now can take up to two minutes at some times during the day.

Since I have a high-speed internet connection, what is it with the severs in the USA that would cause such a delay for me to download my e-mail from them?

I would like to be able respond knowledgeably to the web hoster about this problem as their initial response was pathetic, and completely missed the point I was raising (they talked about size limits for sending e-mail, when I asked about downloading speed).

Thanks for any advice.

Dynamic

2472 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 738

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1113327 22-Aug-2014 10:08

Are you getting what you are paying for.... i.e. paying peanuts and getting monkeys?

What tech is being used? e.g. POP. IMAP, Exchange.

The speed sounds pathetic, but as email is a background process (i.e. you are rarely watching it) I would not be too concerned (unless you are paying a premium price and expect premium service as a result).

"4 wheels move the body. 2 wheels move the soul."

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

gustov

138 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 10

Reply # 1113328 22-Aug-2014 10:14

Oh yes, I am paying peanuts for sure. I'm using POP3.

But what dictates the speed at which the e-mail can be downloaded from their server?

Thanks too for putting into perspective about e-mail being a background process - good point!

Dynamic

2472 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 738

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1113331 22-Aug-2014 10:18

There's a pretty reasonable chance they have throttled the bandwidth on downloading emails to 128kbps or 256kbps or similar per connection to stop one client hogging the bandwidth and/or so they don't have to buy a faster connection for their server.

There are heaps of alternatives if this becomes an issue.

"4 wheels move the body. 2 wheels move the soul."

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

reven

3409 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 691

Trusted

Reply # 1113333 22-Aug-2014 10:29

have you looked into using gmail or similar as the email provider? thats what I do point my mx record for my domain to gmail and use that.

ghettomaster

282 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 76

Reply # 1113343 22-Aug-2014 10:44

In answer to your question about what will be directly affecting the speed, gustov, there are a number of general factors that will apply to any service on the internet.

Although you have a nice fast fibre connection, if your ISP does not have enough capacity either nationally or internationally for the number of customers they have, this will cause connections to be slow. Also bear in mind that your ISP might have great national bandwidth and insufficient international bandwidth and while international websites may seem fast, it could be local caching is helping as will be the case with larger websites. This being said most NZ ISPs should deliver a reasonable service, especially those that have geared up and are delivering fibre.

If your ISP is not the bottleneck, then it will be your email provider. As has been mentioned, they may be restricting the speed on a per-connection basis to ensure there is enough bandwidth amongst all their customers. The other possibility is that they do not have sufficient bandwidth or their server is over-utilized. One way to find out if it is your ISP or your email provider is to use speedtest.net to test against some servers in the city where you think the server is, or at least the country. This will give you an idea of if the bottle-neck is your ISP or your email provider.

Note that I have tried to answer your question in a way that will give you a better understanding of how things work. Also, as mentioned, you may find that if your email client downloads in the background then the speed is not a big issue. If it is an issue you'll want to consider changing email provider (assuming that is the bottleneck).

gustov

138 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 10

Reply # 1113344 22-Aug-2014 10:45

Oh yes, when I was out of the country for three months last year I set up my Gmail account to receive a copy of every e-mail sent to my business e-mail account. Still have that running.

Apart from being a great back-up feature, its meant I can check in and retrieve business e-mails anywhere without the need to use the poorly laid-out web-mail facility in CPanel. It's a brilliant solution, and the Gmail spam filter / promotion filters work well too, and its blindingly fast for searching by keyword a long forgotten e-mail.

gustov

138 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 10

Reply # 1113359 22-Aug-2014 10:50

Ghettomaster - thank you for taking the time to explain it so well. This is very helpful and I will certainly follow your advice and do some tests, including downloading using another ISP, apart from own ISP.

I will report back here with the result, probably in a day or two - better go do some work now!

Thanks again.

ghettomaster

282 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 76

Reply # 1113361 22-Aug-2014 10:53

No problem gustov. Let us know how you get on.