Mail (BSD) notification

[YATES, JOHN H.]

I never seem to be notified of new mail unless I log in again.
It is there when I type 'mail', but I'd like to be notified when
it arrives. Is this normal behavior? I alias mail to Mail, but
that shouldn't affect notification. One user insists he is notified
while logged on, but it doesn't work for me. BSD Unix has biff, I have
a server (no graphics) so I can't use Xbiff. What's up? Is this handled
by sendmail and I would have a wait of up to 15 minutes
(/usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q15m)? I may not have been 'that' patient,
I usually have a .forward file to a machine with VMS MAIL.
(IRIX 3.3.1, 4D/320S).
Thanks, John
yates at c.chem.upenn.edu