Surfing is only second to e-mail in popularity of Internet activities. If you stay online for long periods, you may enjoy the ability to tell Outlook Express to check for e-mail automatically and let you know when something's waiting in the mailbox.

Choose Options from the Tools menu (or press Alt, O, T).

Click the General tab.

Check the box next to Check for New Messages Every 10 Minutes.

When the check mark appears in the box, Outlook Express checks for new messages every 10 minutes. (You can, of course, choose any time increment that works for you.)
On a cable modem, a network, or another service that's constantly connected to the Internet, feel free to change the 10 minutes to 1 minute. That's the quickest way to know about newly arriving e-mail.