Send/Receive Cycle in Outlook

What is a perfect Send/Receive cycle in Outlook?

• When a user clicks on Send/Receive button, the mail client sends a request to the Server to bring down the emails that it currently stores. 
• The Server will provide a list of emails and the client, i.e. Outlook will check out if it has already received the suggested list of emails or not.
• If the suggested mail list has been received by Outlook, then it will close the connection and if not, then it will ask the Server to download the new mails. 
• Once the new mail messages are received by Outlook, it will update its list of received messages. 

 

If due to any reason, the client-Server connection breaks down in between, the Send/Receive cycle will not get executed properly and thus Outlook will not update its list of already downloaded emails. So, next time when the user will click on “Send and Receive” button, Outlook will verify its list of emails that are being already received. Since it does not have the updated record of received messages, chances are it will command the Server to download the already collected emails. This is how an improper Send/Receive Cycle Causes duplicate emails in Microsoft Outlook.

How does antivirus interrupts the Send/Receive process?

When an antivirus or a firewall scanner is integrated with Outlook, it will interrupt the communication process between the client and Server. Example: When a Send/Receive process requested by a user, there will be an interaction between the client and the antivirus before the client- Server interaction which could lead to failure of a perfect Send Receive cycle.

However, integrating an antivirus with an application is a good practice as per the security concerns.