Re: Outlook 2003 on server 2003 client machine won't connect to exchange server

Can you open a connection to shared folders? I once saw an issue where ping
worked but SMB connection did not. It was caused by a subnet mask error.
Something like 10.10.0.100 (255.255.255.0) on one PC giving a network address of
10.10.0.0 and 10.10.5.99 (255.255.0.0) on the other also giving 10.10.0.0. It
was 6 or 7 years ago so I do not recall the exact details.
..

On 31 Aug 2006 07:43:58 -0700, "tehtechie" <tehtechie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

This server 2003 sp1 machine is simply joined to the domain. It really
doesn't house anything except IIS. It's simply joined to our domain.
The exchange server is on the WAN, and is not on the same network
segment as this server 2003 client. Any machine running windows XP on
our network of over 250 computers is fine, but the client running
server 2003 sp1 is not fine.

Walk through of steps:

1. Going to control panel, then Mail icon.
2. Clicked on Show Profiles
3. Clicked on Add and entered a name (tester)
4. Add new mail account - Exchange Server
5. Entered the FQDN of the exchange server (which pings from this box
just fine)
6. Choose either cached exchange or not cached exchange, doesn't
matter
7. Enter Users name and hit Check Name (note: doesn't matter which
user we enter here)
8. Error message comes up, and won't resolve. "The connection to the
Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable. Outlook must be online or
connected to complete this action."

Of course, on we go from there.

I know that outlook 2003 uses ONLY the binding of rpc over tcp/ip, so
obviously this is where the problem lies. I am not using any other
programs that use RPC that I know of that are also having errors,
and... best of all, nothing in the event log.

Does anyone else have the ability to test a clean windows server 2003,
sp1 box, with no servers running and tell me if they too, cannot
connect to the exchange server?

Thanks.


Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] wrote:
In news:1156819002.419820.283670@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
tehtechie <tehtechie@xxxxxxxxx> typed:
We have been trying to troubleshoot this issue for some time, and we
are running very shy on resources about now.

We have outlook 2003 installed on a machine that has windows server
2003 service pack 1 installed. It's not a domain controller, and is
not the exchange server. It does not have ISA server 2000 or 2004
installed. The usual suspects for RPC communication have been ruled
out.

When we try to configure an exchange mail account in outlook, we get
the error message: "The connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server is
unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this
action."

I have been through the MS knowledgebase article about solving
connectivity problems caused by RPC to no avail. The RPC registry
keys are set correctly, I have uninstalled and reinstalled TCP/IP,
and have even attempted to repair the windows installation using the
windows server 2003 with sp1 CD.

RPCdump reports: RpcMgmtEpEltInqNext:(The remote procedure call failed
and did not execute. ).

RPCPing fails, and I get a lot of: Status is -1073606647

There is no firewall enabled on this machine either... so I just have
no idea what the heck is going on??

Is anyone able to lend a hand in helping solve this issue?

What's the relationship of this server to the Exchange server - are they on
the same LAN? WAN? How are you trying to connect to the mailbox on the
Exchange server? A plain old MAPI connection? RPC over HTTP won't work, as
that requires WinXP SP1 or SP2 on the client. When you set up a new profile,
what exactly are you selecting? If you don't select cached mode, what
happens?
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 type of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
.

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