Mail slow

I've finally got a mail client running on our web server and it works fine, except in the time it takes to run the mail() function. I've put diagnostics round the call and it seems to be taking 22 seconds to return. All I'm doing is forwarding the results of an enquiry form as plain text. I'm sure I've seen reference to this problem somewhere but can't remember (or find) where it was. Can anyone out there help? Tim Ward Senior Systems Engineer Please refer to the following disclaimer in respect of this message: http://www.stivesdirect.com/e-mail-disclaimer.html