Outlook won't connect to exchange - All users.

Prophet · 2 Sep 2011 at 11:14

I've got a strange issue at the office where all the client PC's won't connect to the exchange server. The login box pops up all the time and after entering the correct credentials just comes back again and again.

If I use OWA from any of the PC's it works fine and all the email is there.

I've googled the problem which suggests it's a corrupted account on the client PC however there are 15 with the same issue so I'm thinking it's more server side.

Any ideas?

Yamahahahahaha · 2 Sep 2011 at 12:20

Which version of Exchange are you running?
Have you restarted the server?

PR. · 2 Sep 2011 at 12:25

Might be an expired SSL or an issue with AutoConfiguration of clients. As Yamahahahaha says we'd really need to know which version of Exchange.

Prophet · 2 Sep 2011 at 12:52

It's exchange 2007 with clients ranging from XP to Win7 64bit.

Restarted the server and all the services etc

Swarfega · 2 Sep 2011 at 13:06

Do you have Outlook 2003? if so are these users working ok?

HarryPainful · 2 Sep 2011 at 13:14

Do you use roaming profiles?

If OWA is working that proves that all the info stores are mounted and mail is being routed ok.

I assume you have got a test machine and created a new profile on that for a user to rule out a profile/outlook install problem?

Prophet · 2 Sep 2011 at 14:11

Swarfega said:
Do you have Outlook 2003? if so are these users working ok?

Yes, a couple of the users do have this but it's not working. Most are 2007/10.

HarryPainful said:
Do you use roaming profiles?

If OWA is working that proves that all the info stores are mounted and mail is being routed ok.

I assume you have got a test machine and created a new profile on that for a user to rule out a profile/outlook install problem?

No roaming profiles are configured. Everyone has a computer assigned to them.

I've used a test PC with 2007 on it but when it tries to contact the exchange server, after detecting the user/server it throws up a 'cannot connect to server' message. I can ping the server both via IP and name with good responses.

Swarfega · 2 Sep 2011 at 14:20

Is the mailbox store mounted?

Prophet · 2 Sep 2011 at 14:23

Swarfega said:
Is the mailbox store mounted?

Yes. It can be accessed via OWA.

Swarfega · 2 Sep 2011 at 14:28

Very true, my bad.

I take it the event logs aren't giving any signs. Normally the best place to be looking I guess.

Muffin` · 2 Sep 2011 at 14:30

Do you have the GPO deployed for configuring the connections tab on the client? If so what are the settings in there for a client having the issues?

tonym · 2 Sep 2011 at 19:10

Can the users access the Internet ok?

Any Password enforcement software employed on your network?

We have a similar problem now and again when a users password is about to expire, you're asked to authenticate against the proxy server and the mail server. If you've installed an enforcement program for everything, and they are all due a change, it could be that causing it.

EDIT: Lots of ideas here for you to try:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com.../thread/c1e72d2a-d360-4ff0-b2f5-1a9ae149df18/

Prophet · 2 Sep 2011 at 21:10

Muffin` said:
Do you have the GPO deployed for configuring the connections tab on the client? If so what are the settings in there for a client having the issues?

Unless there's a global default one, no there shouldn't be.

tonym said:
Can the users access the Internet ok?

Any Password enforcement software employed on your network?

We have a similar problem now and again when a users password is about to expire, you're asked to authenticate against the proxy server and the mail server. If you've installed an enforcement program for everything, and they are all due a change, it could be that causing it.

EDIT: Lots of ideas here for you to try:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com.../thread/c1e72d2a-d360-4ff0-b2f5-1a9ae149df18/

Yeah the internet it fine.

No password enforcement software etc. It's a very basic Small Business Server domain with bog standard clients accessing the server for email and shared folders.

I'll check out that link

Thanks for all the idea so far guys

#Chri5# · 2 Sep 2011 at 21:28

For Outlook 2007/2010, CTRL + right click the Outlook icon in the System Tray. You can then run an Autodiscover test and also look at the Connection Status which might give you a clue.

Prophet · 2 Sep 2011 at 21:30

#Chri5# said:
For Outlook 2007/2010, CTRL + right click the Outlook icon in the System Tray. You can then run an Autodiscover test and also look at the Connection Status which might give you a clue.

Great, I'll give that a go

mjd · 8 Sep 2011 at 20:00

Whilst you can ping by IP and name, what are you using in outlook itself?
Have you tried referencing the server by IP or the server's FQDN perhaps?
I see what you mean with regards to diagnosing the problem, it seems to be a minefield of possible solutions.

Liquidfox · 9 Sep 2011 at 10:49

This is a common issue with SBS 2008 and Outlook. There's a hotfix for it somewhere, for the life of me I can't remember where, i've used it enough times! I'll try and hunt it down for you now

EDIT: Make sure Exchange Rollup 9 is installed, that's the first major step.
EDIT2: Also, you can turn off RPC over HTTP and it stops the prompting

Prophet · 9 Sep 2011 at 12:12

mjd said:
Whilst you can ping by IP and name, what are you using in outlook itself?
Have you tried referencing the server by IP or the server's FQDN perhaps?
I see what you mean with regards to diagnosing the problem, it seems to be a minefield of possible solutions.

Outlook is using the name although I've used the IP to test this.

Liquidfox said:
This is a common issue with SBS 2008 and Outlook. There's a hotfix for it somewhere, for the life of me I can't remember where, i've used it enough times! I'll try and hunt it down for you now

EDIT: Make sure Exchange Rollup 9 is installed, that's the first major step.
EDIT2: Also, you can turn off RPC over HTTP and it stops the prompting

I believe Rollup 9 is installed and will check out RPC.

Thanks again for the help guys