Testing for Push Notifications

There are two ways to determine whether push notifications are in use on your installation. The first test is to send a message to yourself. Push notifications may not be working if the message appears only after a standard polling interval of two or five minutes, or if you can cause messages to appear by opening another folder and then re-opening your Inbox.

The following procedure outlines a test that may give more reliable results.

    To test for push notifications
  1. In the Microsoft Exchange Client, select the Find option from the Tools menu.
  2. Click Folder and select a folder in a remote information store (such as an Inbox on the server or a public folder), preferably one that contains a large number of messages.
  3. Type a string in the Message body text box that will likely be found in a large number of messages, such as the letter e.
  4. Click Find Now. Watch the screen as the messages appear. If they appear in rapid bursts, push notifications are most likely working.
  5. If the display of new messages slows markedly or stops, click a column heading (such as Item Text or Received) to sort the messages. If new messages appear as the list of messages is redisplayed, push notifications are probably not in use. This is because your request to re-sort messages causes an RPC, which in turn causes the delivery of messages if poll notifications are in effect.