Slow Mail launch: a workaround We previously covered reports of a problem where after installing 10.3.7, Mail would take a significant amount of time to launch. Reader John Rawnsley discovered that providing a DNS server address in Network preferences avoids this issue, at least until Apple provides a more permanent fix:
"It appears that in System Preferences/Network the settings have become more DNS sensitive with the 10.3.7 upgrade. I am connected to the 'net via a Netgear DG834G router, so I opened the Netgear Router settings and discovered a discrepancy between the DNS server addresses I found there (158.152.1.x) and the DNS server addresses I had in 'Network' for AirPort using DHCP (192.168.0.x). This latter address being the one I have previously used in 10.3.6. I simply copied and entered the 'new' DNS address, clicked Apply Now and...Mail now opens in 2 seconds when connected via AirPort -- not the 1.5 minutes as reported on the 29th December!"
Note that the 192.168.0.x address referenced by John is likely the router's own internal IP address; DHCP servers that handle DNS will often provide their own address to DHCP clients as the DNS server address. This shouldn't cause a problem -- and in fact it's usually not a good idea to provide a DNS server's IP address in both your router and in computers connecting to that router via DHCP -- but sometimes entering external DNS server addresses on your computer directly can resolve such DNS issues. Be aware that if your ISP's DNS server address ever changes, you'll need to manually enter the new IP address, replacing the one you entered when using this workaround.
