Outlook 2000 SP3 with XP SP2 Mail Delay

[Rob Smyth]

Greetings All,
I have run into what appears to be a very common problem - mail delayed
from Exchange server to Outlook client until a folder change or F5
(send receive) is hit.

Let me first start by saying... I have read all of the KB articles and
post that are even remotely related to this and not one of them solve
or pinpoint the problem.
Client side polling doesn't solve the problem.
Why does the consumer need to adjust the registry to cope with the
compatibility issues of software from the same manufacture, the
arrogance to assume that I should or need to write a deployment script
to fix a problem is ludicrous but not as insane as touching each
registry in an Enterprise environment.

I am of the firm belief this is a bug and Microsoft needs to address it
and this is why it is a bug...

As many of the folks before me.
Exchange 2000 SP3 with post SP3 Hot fixes
No VLAN, No NAT, Same Subnet, No special
Not blocking or firewalling any TCP/IP traffic
All clients on entire network are Outlook 2000 SP3

The Clients having the problem are all XP Professional SP2
The problem clients are both in place upgrades and clean installs of
XP.

We have no other problems with the other clients.

XP Firewall is off and even added the Office.exe to the exceptions
(just in case it is looking at that as well).

Messages do not come in real-time but are delayed.
My Delivery Queues on the Server are empty.

Sometimes they come as a group; usually f5 or changing folders is the
catalyst.

To the great Microsoft (employed) Outlook/Exchange Gurus that be,
please acknowledge this as a bug so that development can begin for next
Office 2000 or XP service Pack.

Users shouldn't have to go through extraordinary steps to receive the
basic core function of their application software.

Thank You
Rob Smyth
CISSP, MCSE, CCNP
Director Infrastructure
St. Louis MO

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

FWIW, there are many posts that show setting an exception to Outlook.exe
(not Office.exe) or using the ForcePolling registry key does resolve the
issues introduced by the on by default built-in firewall of SP2 for Windows
XP. Assuming that you have followed the steps in the KB articles and are
sure that the firewall is off (including disabling the service), then one
can only assume that something else is afoot. For example, have you done a
network trace to see if the UDP packet is arriving at the troublesome
workstations?

Outside of that, do not expect another service pack or update for the Office
2000 line. Mainstream support for Office 2000 expired on 6/30/2004.

/neo

 

[Rob Smyth]

Thanks Neo I appreciate the response.
At least I got one, 50 others out there that don't have one.

Too bad companies don't stand by their products.
We can't fix it so we're, going to stop supporting it mentality.
We'll take your licensing fees and make money off you, but don't expect
anything in return especially a little acknowledgement that there is a
problem

That's not acceptable.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Thanks Neo I appreciate the response.
At least I got one, 50 others out there that don't have one.

Too bad companies don't stand by their products.
We can't fix it so we're, going to stop supporting it mentality.
We'll take your licensing fees and make money off you, but don't
expect anything in return especially a little acknowledgement that
there is a problem

That's not acceptable.

I understand your frustration, but ranting in here is not going to help.
This is a peer support group, not a direct line to Microsoft.

Software "ages" - it's a fact of life, and sometimes you have to upgrade as
a cost of doing business. Ford hasn't "supported" the Edsel for a long time.
When Outlook 2000 was written, WinXP hadn't even been invented yet.
Companies can spend all their development money and resources on trying to
fix old stuff, or they can work on new products that work better (such as
Outlook 2003, which is a VAST improvement over any prior version).

In your situation, the usual fix is to disable the XP firewall or add
exceptions (open up everything to the entire local subnet), which solves 90%
of these complaints. If that is not working, did you follow Neo's advice to
try some network trace tools to look for UDP issues? It really does sound
like you have some network problems.

 

[Brian Tillman]

The Clients having the problem are all XP Professional SP2
The problem clients are both in place upgrades and clean installs of
XP.

We have no other problems with the other clients.

XP Firewall is off and even added the Office.exe to the exceptions
(just in case it is looking at that as well).

The firewall can appear "off", but unless you go into the Services control
panel and set it to "Manual" and reboot, it may, in fact, not be off.
Excepting "office.exe" won't help with Outlook, either.