Re: Outlook 2003 can't see Exch 2003 over RPC

It worked briefly, though I can't seem to repeat that now!

I'll try testing from an external link as you suggest, although getting it
working on the LAN side is my priority rather than the external HTTPS link,
which was more a case of "try it and see" for diagnostic purposes!

Part of the problem here for me is that I can't see what it's doing. Do you
know of anything in the MS toolkits which will track RPC calls at client and
server endpoints and let me see what it's trying to do and perhaps what's
failing or not getting through?

Thanks!


J


"John Oliver, Jr. [MVP]" wrote:

Jedf,

You stated you did get RPC over HTTP to work for a while when the SBS Server
was DHCP server, is this still the case? As for the cert, here is link
explaining the proper setup but it sounds like you have this configured
correctly,
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B555261. I would
also try to troubleshoot while you computer is not connected locally to your
network. Since you will using RCP over HTTPs over the internet, its best to
troubleshoot over the internet I have found myself. Try plugging your
laptop or computer on your Routers external interface to test or try from
outside your network, say at home. Test with outlook /rpcdiag switch.

--
John Oliver, Jr
MCSE, MCT, CCNA
Exchange MVP 2007
Microsoft Certified Partner

"Jeff" <Jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:B11FB28D-48CE-48E4-BAB4-ECD54A1E3F8D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
John,

Thanks for sticking with this!

Re-ran the internet & email wizard. No change to behaviour.

Oddly, there's nothing in the event logs at all. Checked App, Sys, Sec and
DS and nothing gets added when I try Outlook either over TCP or HTTP. I've
got all the DS, LDAP and RPC-related diagnostics for the Exchange server
instance set to maximum logging. There are a few 0x51 & 0x52 LDAP
informationals in the DS log, but all sources suggest those are harmless.

The RPC/HTTP attempt was over HTTPS but I've also now tried RPC over
vanilla
HTTP and that was no different.

Makes me wonder whether the traffic is even leaving the workstation, but
the
HTTPS version does prompt for user id and password and seems to do
something
with the login, so I'm guessing it is connecting or at least trying to
connect.

The server certificate, I generated locally during the SBS install. The
root
authority is my server and I've already told the client machines to
install
the cert when I first browsed the server's HTTPS websites from them. The
only
possible issue I can think of there is that the cert is issued for our
external FQDN (www.something.net) rather than the internal server name
(sbs_box.domain.local)... would that screw it up without reporting any
sort
of error?

Thanks,


Jeff

"John Oliver, Jr. [MVP]" wrote:

Jeff,

Check your event log on the SBS server for any related errors when client
tries to open RPC over HTTP connection. You also never stated if you are
using HTTPs, and if so, are you using a personal cert or public cert?
Also,
rerun Internet and Mail Connection Wizard to create the necessary changes
for RPC over HTTPs on the SBS 2003 R2 server.

--
John Oliver, Jr
MCSE, MCT, CCNA
Exchange MVP 2007
Microsoft Certified Partner

"Jeff" <Jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:B242C061-1622-42AA-8CE5-6AD3516FD3D5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
John,

Followed the DNS article, also checked netdiag and dcdiag outputs and
all
tests passed ok so guess that's fine. However, no joy from
Outlook/Exchange.
I even went the whole hog and made the SBS box the DHCP and DNS for the
LAN,
disabling the router's services. Same old response - seems unable to
resolve
the names. The SRV records in the DNS look fine, so no idea why.

Disk shares, net view, etc work between the same workstation and the
server,
and it logs in to the domain happily - all of which suggests that at
least
some RPC calls are working just fine, but not the Outlook/Exchange
ones.
Also
checked RPC protocol listing for Exchange in the registry on both
workstation
and server and as far as I can tell, it's ok (ip_tcp and local rpc are
both
there).

I did briefly get Outlook RPC over HTTP to work, but that seemed to
stop
working as soon as I stopped SBS being the DHCP server (weird, given
RPC/HTTP
is meant to be used over the internet so I wouldn't expect SBS to be
either
DNS or DHCP in that situation).

Seriously baffled here! Do you have any more thoughts?

Thanks!


Jeff
"Jeff" wrote:

Thanks John. I'll give that a try - I reckon we can live with the
thing
being the DNS server. The router should only get upset if it can't
control
DHCP, looking at what it's doing.

The misbehaviour was something to do with it losing sight of the
network
interface card and the Sharepoint timer process going mad and eating
up a
whole CPU core to itself. Had to do a repair from the setup CD in the
end
and
all's well now. I'll keep an eye on that. Hardware spec is pretty
high,
so
unless we had some temporary fault, I think it was the O.S.

Thanks again, will let you know how I get on.

Jeff


"John Oliver, Jr. [MVP]" wrote:

DNS is the backbone of Active Directory. Without a proper setup you
will
continue to have issues related to DNS. You could most likey can
use
the
Router as DHCP Server but DNS must be handled by SBS Server for
everything
to work properly in SBS Domain. I found SBS to be very reliable but
if
you
have inadequate hardware you could see issues. Below is link why
DNS
is so
vital to Windows environment.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/291382

--
John Oliver, Jr
MCSE, MCT, CCNA
Exchange MVP 2007
Microsoft Certified Partner

"Jeff" <Jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:D527231A-B780-4A9D-ABA2-38CEE8798DE2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
John,

Thanks for that... Does this also mean that the SBS server wants
to
be the
DHCP source for the LAN too? I can live with it trying to be
primary
DNS,
but the DHCP needs to be handled by the router or that'll get
upset
about
access controls and probably UPnP too. This server is just another
box on
the
LAN, not the DMZ device.

I'd really rather not rely on SBS to do either job to be frank,
especially
as I've had some reliability problems with the OS (already had to
rebuild
once since I set it up two weeks ago and as I speak, it seems to
be
misbehaving again - may have to try your solution after the next
repair or
rebuild :o( ).

Is there any way around this - when all's said and done, RPC is
just
another
TCP/IP service, so I'm bemused as to why SBS needs all this
special
treatment. Nothing else using RPC seems to.

Thanks!


Jeff

"John Oliver, Jr. [MVP]" wrote:

Your problem in this setup is that DNS must be handled by the SBS
Server
and
the clients must use the SBS Server IP as the Primary DNS Server.
Set
the
ISP's DNS Servers as Forwarders in your DNS Console on your SBS
Server
then
update the DHCP Scope of the SBS Server to make the DNS Server
the
internal
IP of the SBS Server.

--
John Oliver, Jr
MCSE, MCT, CCNA
Exchange MVP 2007
Microsoft Certified Partner

"Jeff" <Jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1AC3612B-C844-49DE-9249-79DF962D3B56@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bit of a long post, but as you'll see, I've tried to check out
as
much
as
I
could before posting!

I've just completed setup of a SBS2003 R2 server and I'm having
a
big
problem with getting Outlook 2003 clients to connect to the
Exchange
server
in its native (RPC) mode.

Outlook web access is fine for all users, the users can map
drives
to
the
server, etc - no problems. The client PCs are one which is a
member of
the
domain and authenticates against the SBS server and one which
is
configured
in a workgroup so only connects to pick up email. I checked
IMAP
access
to
the mailboxes also works fine, except I don't like Outlook's
handling
of
IMAP
so I'd rather use a proper Exchange server setup.

I tell Outlook to add a new account, MS Exchange Server. Enter
the
server
name and the user name and click Next. Outlook then complains
"The
action
could not be completed. The connection to the Microsoft
Exchange
server
is
unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete
this
action"
and
won't go any further.

I've tried the short name <server>, the FQDN
<server.domain.local>
and
even
the internet equivalent <www.server.net>, all with the same
result.
The
setting of "Use Cached Exchange mode" also makes no difference.

I thought this might be an authentication issue, so I tried
setting
"Always
prompt for user name and password" under More
Settings/Security.
That
lets
.

Relevant Pages

  • RE: Outlook RPC over HTTp deosnt work
    ... try to use RPC over HTTP to connect the Exchange Server. ... What SBS is running on the problematic Server? ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: SBS2003 - Cannot restore GPO following Article 888943
    ... As to the second DNS setting, the system worked quite well prior to ... forwarders on the SBS server DNS. ... >another installation of SBS 2003? ... >This newsgroup only focuses on SBS technical issues. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Outlook 2003 cant see Exch 2003 over RPC
    ... I've tried RPC ping before but the results seemed inconclusive. ... server endpoints and let me see what it's trying to do and perhaps what's ... You stated you did get RPC over HTTP to work for a while when the SBS ... Followed the DNS article, also checked netdiag and dcdiag outputs ...
    (microsoft.public.exchange.setup)
  • Re: Urgent! New router and big disaster
    ... Go back to pointing the external NIC DNS Servers to the SBS server IP ... make sure the DHCP Client Service is running on the server. ... Next I Select a local router device with an ip address. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Internet Speed
    ... I think what we are trying to say is to use the DHCP from the SBS and NOT ... DNS and WINS point to the SBS. ... as the server IP address. ... it is recommend to configure all SBS client computers' IP and DNS ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)