ASP.NET application "wakeup" program
SharePoint, Exchange Outlook Web Access, and other Web applications based on ASP.NET are sometimes painfully slow and first use each day. This is because after so many hours of not being used, Internet Information Server (IIS) flushes the application from its cache. The delay you experience is IIS rebuilding the application in cache.
The Codeplex project SPWakeUp can be used with any ASP.NET application. Simply configure it with the URL of the application and a schedule it to run every few hours. This will "touch" the site and either load it in to cache or tell IIS to keep it in cache.
This can also be used with my company's Directory Update and Directory Manager applications.