As you probably know, Outlook doesn’t offer a mechanism to schedule Internet mail downloads for a particular time every day -- like just before you get into the office. A locally installed POP server solves this problem, because it does support scheduled connections. It downloads the mail to my server’s hard drive -- usually faster than Outlook in Corporate can do it -- where the mail awaits your initial login.
POP or IMAP /SMTP Servers
If you run TCP/IP on your network, you can install a free or inexpensive POP/SMTP (or IMAP/SMTP) server, often combined with a proxy server.
WorkgroupMail, listed below, operates as a POP/SMTP server.
The programs listed below do not require Microsoft Exchange Server.