>When we add a new user to our Distribution list, it takes at least a
>half the day to process the initial packets. Our Maxexchange server
>has 128meg of ram and a Celeron 300mhz processor. Would we notice a
>considerable difference if we upgraded this server.
Probably not. The two most important factors in determining the time required to process a refresh packet are network speed and database size. Speeding up the network link between the MaxExchange server and the file server would be one way to get things done faster.
Reducing network traffic by upgrading to client-server would also help, if you haven't done so already. I've worked with MaxExchange on a couple of Maximizer databases in the 1GB range, and they take roughly the same time (~0.5 day) to crunch an initial packet. The networks are 10Mbps Ethernet and the MaxExchange server machines are significantly less powerful than yours (in the order of P166, 32MB RAM). Before they upgraded to client-server, MaxExchange refresh processing took considerably longer to complete.
>Is there any other way to create the initial database without having
>to create so many large packets?
Unfortunately, no. The only way for MaxExchange to keep track of the [replication] state of the database is to do the refresh processing itself. Any efforts to short-circuit the process would be risky at best.
