Connection State switches between "Online" and "Connected"

[Roshan Q]

I am running an Exchange 2003 SP2 server with multiple Outlook 2003 SP2 & SP3
clients running in cached mode and on the same LAN as the Exchange server.
Two clients (one SP2 and one SP3) have been having these behaviors lately:

- their connection state switches between "Online" and "Connected"

- they frequently get the popup message "Outlook is trying to retrieve
data from the Microsoft Exchange Server [ServerName]" from the Outlook icon
in the System Tray, and their Outlook freezes until this message goes away.


My understanding is that "Connected" is only applicable to a cached Outlook
client, and "Online" is only applicable to a non-cached client. This seems
to be borne out by this Microsoft Online Article:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP010030691033.aspx?pid=CH063565691033&CTT=42. [Or maybe that's just what I want to read.]

Any idea what is going on -- or if the symptoms are even related?

 

[Roshan Q]

I figured out one issue myself: these users have access to other users'
mailboxes in the Folder List. When they have a folder in their own mailbox
selected, the connection state is "Connected" as it is running in cached
mode. However, if they are accessing a folder in another person's mailbox,
it is "Online". This happens because only the user's own mailbox is cached,
not other mailboxes in the Folder List.

Now I just need to figure out why Outlook gets the "Outlook is trying to
retrieve data from the Microsoft Exchange Server [ServerName]" error so
often. Any thoughts?

TIA,
roshan