Outlook 2000 Hangs When Sync Over VPN

[pchrist]

I have a user the access our exchange server 5.5 remotely using VPN - the
user is able to send and receive emails fine but when he closes Outlook to
sync his offline folders Outlook hangs. Below is the email received from the
user:

Outlook hangs during "synchronizing forms" or "saving synch. log" when I
exit. It does 8 or 9 times out of ten.
No other errors messages appear

I have had the user rename his ost file and let Outlook create a new one but
the result is the same - Any ideas?

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I have a user the access our exchange server 5.5 remotely using VPN
- the user is able to send and receive emails fine but when he closes
Outlook to sync his offline folders Outlook hangs. Below is the email
received from the user:

Outlook hangs during "synchronizing forms" or "saving synch. log"
when I exit. It does 8 or 9 times out of ten.
No other errors messages appear

I have had the user rename his ost file and let Outlook create a new
one but the result is the same - Any ideas?

Can the user sync by pressing F9 while connected? Ping the server
successfully by name?

With VPN/remote users, I always set up the OST file, sync it, and then have
Outlook prompt to connect/work offline - and instruct the user to always
choose "Work Offline" & sync in the background (scheduled, and manual if
they wish). Does that help?

Note that OL2003 with cached mode can make life a lot happier for the end
user and admin alike - although there are apparently some known issues with
OL2003 and E5x (I haven't seen them myself).

Note also that you're using old and now unsupported versions of Exchange &
Outlook....strongly suggest you look into upgrading. If you're a small
company, check out SBS2003.

 

[pchrist]

Can the user sync by pressing F9 while connected? Ping the server
successfully by name?

With VPN/remote users, I always set up the OST file, sync it, and then have
Outlook prompt to connect/work offline - and instruct the user to always
choose "Work Offline" & sync in the background (scheduled, and manual if
they wish). Does that help?

Note that OL2003 with cached mode can make life a lot happier for the end
user and admin alike - although there are apparently some known issues with
OL2003 and E5x (I haven't seen them myself).

Note also that you're using old and now unsupported versions of Exchange &
Outlook....strongly suggest you look into upgrading. If you're a small
company, check out SBS2003.

The user can start the Sync process by pressing F9 and has no problem
pinging the server by name or by IP. The users machine is set up to prompt to
Connect/Work Offline

If the user chooses to work offline then he can hit F9 to sync then it shoud
sync all the folders in the background?

The user usually chooses connect and has no problem working within Outlook
untill he closes the session and the sync function happens automatically