How often should I fsck my ext3 partitions?

[Johannes Wiedersich <johannes@physik.blm.tu-muenchen.de>]

The debian default of my sarge installations is that the ext3-FS are
fsck'ed about every 30 mounts or 180 days (whatever comes first).

I assume that debian's installation defaults are reasonable. However one
of the computers is a server with thousands of files changed in /home
each day; the other one is my laptop with far less files changed per
day. I have daily backups of all important data.

The laptop is booted often and consequently fschecked almost once per
week or fortnight (which I consider more than a bit anoying). The server
is almost never checked (it's rebooted about once or twice per year,
whenever a security update installs a new kernel).

Is it reasonable to fsck the ext3-partitions of the laptop so often?
Is it reasonable to fsck the partitions of the server so seldomn?
What is a reasonable schedule for a server or a workstation?

Thanks for any hints!

Johannes


NB: the ext3-usage-Howto states: 'it is your responsibility to
periodically schedule downtime for the manual checking of disks.',
without being more specific.