[Evolution] basic questions that I haven't seen answered anywhere

[Ben Miller <wheelscribe gmail com>]

Sorry if these questions fall into the "newbie" category, but I haven't
seen them addressed anywhere. 

Is it possible to configure Evolution (running on Gnome) to provide a
visual alert that mail has arrived? On that note, calendar alarms don't
seem to work, either.

How does the junk mail filter work? I have it enabled and have
SpamAssassin installed, but nothing gets filtered. What am I missing?

Lastly, Evolution seems very slow when downloading large numbers of
messages, as compared to other e-mail programs. Painfully slow at times.
Is there a specific reason for this?

Thanks for your help,
Ben