I guess some people have the “You’ve got mail” notice, but my provider doesn’t do that.
So I check 3, 4 times a day.
My kids now don’t check even once a month, and they lose their mail. So I have to call first if I want to email them photos or e-postcards so they will know they are coming.
Anywhere from 15 to 20 times a day.
I check mine usually 3-4 times a day. Yet it takes me sometimes two weeks to respond to some e-mails. I usually check it so often to keep the junk mail sorted from the good mail. Then on the weekends I’ll reply to personal messages. Most of my friends know I do it this way so if there’s something urgent they will call or not get real antsy if I don’t respond for a few days.
Non-stop, more or less. On the weekends, my computer is normally idling online. I don’t typically have time to respond immediately but I do tend to read e-mail as I get it if in the office or home.
Tibs.
At work, fetchmail runs every 3 minutes. At home, 3 weeks can go by between checks. Methinks the volume at work has given me an e-mail allergy…
Hey, honeydewgrrl, I’m sending you an e-mail right now. Seriously.
Tibs.
Once or twice a day, twice only if I’ve been on a long time.
Pretty much nonstop. I wake up in the morning and the computer is hooked to DSL (my apt or girlfriend’s apt). Eudora is not running but I launch it shortly after waking and it fetches anything that landed during the night. After awhile it is time to go to work so I shut down, disconnect the laptop and stick it in the Targus bag, commute, unpack at other end, boot, switch TCP/IP to work settings (fixed IP ethernet), launch Eudora. Work eightplus hours. Yah, OK, read StraightDope for about 6 of those 8. Am “at work” eightplus hours anyhow. Shut down, pack computer, commute home, unpack and setup, switch IP setting back to DSL, launch Eudora. Do other things during evening, intermittently spiked with incoming mail sound. Get ready for bed, quit Eudora, put computer to sleep.
Repeat.
Daily or more or less…
3 or 4 times daily.
It depends.
If I’m on campus and the laptop is up and running, the school e-mail is pretty much going constantly, and I’ll pop into that window every half hour or so. If I’m at home, I check that one 3-4 times a day.
My msn e-mail, I make a point of checking a couple of times a day, since it was switched to a web-based format and I don’t have the spam filters set to my specifications yet (the old outlook based one I had perfected - I routed things to specific folders…had most spam blocked so that it went to the deleted items folder).
The two hotmail accounts I check anywhere from once a day to once every three or four days, and that’s mainly to delete spam and keep from going over the limit.
If I’m in the office, I receive email at my work address as soon as it hits the server. I have Outlook open all day.
I use Trillian to notify me of any new mail at Yahoo! or Hotmail. I don’t know how frequently it’s checking, but I leave it running all day and on my home PC in the evenings.
Pretty much whenever I wander by my computer… we have a lan on DSL and so our computers are always running and always on the internet so I just wake up the system and look for an envelope 
That is if I’m not sitting here when the mail comes in.
At work we use an Exchange Server so Outlook shows me the mail as soon as it comes in. Once I notice the icon in the tray I am compelled to read the message immediately.
At home Outlook is always running and it is set to check my POP3 account every minute and I generally have the same compusion when it comes to the tray icon.
Oh - and when I’m at work I’m running Trillian with a POP3 plugin that I’m working on - it checks my personal mail ever minute and when it see it’s flashing icon I must go check as well. =)
I use Outlook with Mailwasher. Mailwasher checks for new mail every ten minutes. About once an hour I’ll process the mail and let the good emails pass through to Outlook. I have DSL and I leave the connection running all day long, so it checks continuously.
Every minute on four of my accounts when I’m at work. Once a day when I’m at home.
I don’t check continuously (that’s not very good for the server) but my main mail accounts are checked once every minute when I’m at home and/or working. I think email should be a reasonably fast way to communicate - certainly faster than regular mail. If you can’t be bothered to check it daily or at least a few times per week, tell people you don’t use email and that you prefer other means of communication.
Depending on how bored I am, I check my web mail account anywhere from twice to five times a day. It doesn’t really get much mail, just once-daily e-mails from The Hunger Site and NY Times, but occasionally a friend will send a message there…and I have to clean out the spam that would otherwise kill my poor mailbox.
My primary mail account on AOL gets checked about twice a day unless I’m expecting an e-mail. It’s way too much trouble to fire up AOL (or Internet Explorer for the webmail function, since it doesn’t work terribly well with Opera) just for e-mail, so I usually just check it during my rounds.
I have Pegasus Mail check my host every 123 seconds for new mail and download new messages so I’m greeted by the sound of Curly of Three Stooges fame chuckling over the fact someone actually emailed me.
I’m on and off this dern thing all the freakin’ time.
It’s a sickness, I tell you.