Re: OL 2003: error 0x800408FC - 'The server name you entered can not be found on the network'

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:28:15 -0700, "F. H. Muffman"
<f.h.muffman@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"DonStarr" <don@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:omn793pas8dv6sp313es21pio6e2unb88i@xxxxxxxxxx
Posted this in an old (29 June) thread, but thought it might be better
to create a new one, as the 'solution' in that thread doesn't work
here...

Outlook 2003 (11.8118.8132) SP2
Windows XP Pro SP2
all updated daily via "Automatic Updates"

Two POP3 accounts set up in Outlook. Using the "Test Account
Settings..." button shows no errors, and a network sniffer (Ethereal)
shows what looks like good traffic to the servers (POP3 and SMTP, for
both accounts).

Actually attempting to retrieve messages from the POP3 servers via F9
(Tools -> Send/Receive -> Send/Receive All) results in this error for
both accounts:
Task '****** - Receiving' reported error (0x800408FC) : 'The server
name you entered can not be found on the network (it might be down
temporarily). Please verify that you are online and that the server
name is correct.'

where <******> is the "Mail Account Name".

This occurs for both accounts, and also happens for each account
individually if I only have one account configured.

When the above error is displayed, Ethereal has captured *NO* network
traffic.

I have tried, with no discernable effects:
* Replace POP3/SMTP server names with explicit IP addresses
* Delete / re-create the accounts, one at a time and together
* Delete old / create new Outlook.PST file (in the default location)
* Uninstall / re-install Office 2003

Outlook Express 6, with exactly the same account settings (i.e. the
same that work in the "Test Account Settings..." function in Outlook
2003) works just fine. It can send via SMTP and receive via POP3.

Additionally, Outlook 2003 can *SEND* via SMTP. One of my accounts has
the same server and username/password settings for both POP3 and SMTP.
Outlook 2003 will happily send messages via that account. It will also
send messages on the second account, whose SMTP and POP3 servers are
different.

I've verified that no "SSL" or "Secure Password Authentication"
settings are enabled in Outlook 2003 (the Ethereal captures in the
"Test Account Settings" function show my usernames and passwords in
clear text). If this was the problem, I'd expect some network traffic
before failure.

Any ideas?


What Add-ins in Outlook (Tools - Options - Other - Advanced)?

None. Neither under "Add-In Manager..." nor under "COM Add-Ins..."

What else is running on the system?

Quite a bit, actually. But, to my knowledge, there's nothing that
wasn't installed and running 2 weeks ago, before this problem started.

I neglected to mention in my original post that everything *was*
working previously (2 weeks ago). I booted the machine one morning,
and no more POP. I'm not aware of any changes to the machine.

The problem also occurs when I boot into 'Safe mode with networking'.

I'm wondering if the Test Settings actually doesn't
use Outlook.exe but some process on your system is looking for network
traffic from outlook.exe and that's what's causing the problem.

The network captures seem to indicate that Outlook doesn't even try to
send any network traffic to the POP3 server when I do a send/receive
(though it does talk to the SMTP server without failure).

-Don
.