If your job constantly depends on e-mail for communication, and you connect to the Internet via dial-up, you can configure Outlook 2003 to automatically connect to the Internet whenever it needs to send or receive e-mail in the background.

1. Click "Tools" - "Options".

2. When the "Options" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "Mail Setup" tab.

3. Check "Automatically dial during a background Send/Receive".

4. Click "Send/Receive".

If you are not already set up to send/receive e-mail in the background:

1. Click "Send/Receive". The "Send/Receive Groups" dialog box should appear.

2. Click "All Accounts" or choose your desired group name.

3. Underneath "Setting for group", check "Schedule an automatic send/receive every".

4. Next to the above checkbox, enter how many minutes Outlook 2003 should wait before transmitting e-mail while you are online.

5. Underneath "When Outlook is Offline", check "Schedule an automatic send/receive every".

6. Next to the above checkbox, enter how many minutes Outlook 2003 should wait before automatically connecting to the Internet via dial-up and transmitting e-mail if you are offline.

When done, click "Close" to close the "Send/Receive Groups" dialog box, and "OK" to close the "Options" dialog box.

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