I have a server running sbs 2003 standard R2. On it exchange is set up to pull down the emails from the ISP and then distribute them to the client machines. The problem is you can only set exchange to link up in increments of 15 so the shortest time lag for emails coming down is 15 minutes. Is there any way to get exchange to request emails from the ISP every 2 minutes as you can with any normal version of Outlook not running through a server and microsoft exchange?

Not without a 3rd-party utility.The reason the 15 minute interval is there is to protect you from losing email. If the POP3 connector was to check, lets say, every 5 minutes and you had an email in your remote mailbox that is 10mb in size. If you started downloading, and it took longer than 5 minutes, the old POP3 operation would stop, and start a new one. Thus causing the server to think you already downloaded it and would then delete it from the remote server

Thank you Matt. I have hada look around and found a couple of 3rd party utilities. One is made by MAPILab (Native POP 3 connector) the other GFI (GFI mail essentials). Are these trustable companies and has anyone tried the software or can recommend any others?

Matt is right, not to mention the processor time, memory allocation, etc.. that your server is spending for downloading email via POP connection. Understand that there are several steps that are involved for connecting user account to download. For each user account a TCP connection is established and then acknowledged by the host, then a user name is sent and then acknowlodeged by the host, then a password and ack by the host, then a stat inquiry and ack, and then the download request and ack. I have several small business that the POP connector is the most cost effective and because the host is providing the spyware/virus/spam/etc, etc, etc, protection simplistic process. And in those case they need to accept the "lag time", they shouldn't want their individual Outlook requesting emails every 2 mins either, outlook is such a memory hog anyways, I can only imagine the poor performance from the machine doing so. If you have a situation where email must be received more frequently, then SMTP delivery must be considerd. The MX record for your domain will need to be modified to point to your server, and configuration is a snap with the Repair Interner and Email setting from the Server Manager. DJ