outlook 2003 connects to server but won't send/receive

[ausi61a]

Hi,

I've been fighting with an interesting problem for about a week now and
it's stumping both myself and our IT person. I've been happily using
outlook 2003 for about 8 months over the company VPN (sonic wall) and
about a week ago it started playing up. I have a good connection
between my laptop and the company lan. Outlook connects to the
exchange server (older version I beleive). I deleted my profile and
created a new one. Outlook was able to verify the server name and the
username, and then happily created a new OST file (over 1GB so having
proven the connectionis reliable I know not to do that again).

My problem is that despite this good connection, Outlook was refusing
to send, or receive emails. The icon in hte system tray cycles between
two alerts:
"Outlook is trying to retrieve data from the Microsoft Exchange Server
<exchange servername>"
and
"Connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server has been restored"

Yesterday I downloaded and installed Office 2003 SP2. The behavior
changed slightly. I was able to send a test email to my private
account, but am Outlook is still unable to retrieve emails. I know
they are there and the server is up because OWA works and I can ping
the server.

Any ideas?

 

[Milly Staples - [MVP - Outlook]]

What type of authentication do you have set for your connection? Kerberos
or NTLM/Kerberos?

--
Milly Staples - [MVP Outlook]

Post all replies to the news group. Unsolicited mail sent to my
personal address will be deleted without reading.


After furious head scratching, ausi61a <[email protected]> asked:

| Hi,
|
| I've been fighting with an interesting problem for about a week now
| and it's stumping both myself and our IT person. I've been happily
| using outlook 2003 for about 8 months over the company VPN (sonic
| wall) and about a week ago it started playing up. I have a good
| connection between my laptop and the company lan. Outlook connects
| to the exchange server (older version I beleive). I deleted my
| profile and created a new one. Outlook was able to verify the server
| name and the username, and then happily created a new OST file (over
| 1GB so having proven the connectionis reliable I know not to do that
| again).
|
| My problem is that despite this good connection, Outlook was refusing
| to send, or receive emails. The icon in hte system tray cycles
| between two alerts:
| "Outlook is trying to retrieve data from the Microsoft Exchange Server
| <exchange servername>"
| and
| "Connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server has been restored"
|
| Yesterday I downloaded and installed Office 2003 SP2. The behavior
| changed slightly. I was able to send a test email to my private
| account, but am Outlook is still unable to retrieve emails. I know
| they are there and the server is up because OWA works and I can ping
| the server.
|
| Any ideas?

 

[ausi61a]

Milly,

Thanks for replying. The security settings read
Kerberos/NTLM Password Authentication

I tried the other two alternatives, and got the same lack of response.
Outlook says it's connecting to the exchange server, but does not sync.
the inbox.


BTW, after posting the intial message, I tried sending a larger message
(only 39k actually) and that failed. I just tried sending the short
test messaage again and that was sent without errors (I received it in
my personal email @sbcglobal using Eudora). Then I tried sending a
largeish file (1MB) to the same address. That does not send. And when
I look at the VPN status message I see it sending only about 2kB/sec
(average).

Using Eudora I tried sending the same large(ish -- 1MB) file from one
of my private accounts to the other. Send took about 8sec, and receive
about 3sec, so my ISP connection is fine.

Could it be something with the VPN server?

Andrew

 

[ausi61a]

Any new clues anyone?
Andrew

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Outlook will always time out sending at that incredibly slow rate of 2 kbs
and thus the behavior you are seeing.

You need to see your Network Admin about getting a faster connection for
your VPN. Or a better VPN client.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, ausi61a asked:

| Milly,
|
| Thanks for replying. The security settings read
| Kerberos/NTLM Password Authentication
|
| I tried the other two alternatives, and got the same lack of response.
| Outlook says it's connecting to the exchange server, but does not
| sync. the inbox.
|
|
| BTW, after posting the intial message, I tried sending a larger
| message (only 39k actually) and that failed. I just tried sending
| the short test messaage again and that was sent without errors (I
| received it in my personal email @sbcglobal using Eudora). Then I
| tried sending a largeish file (1MB) to the same address. That does
| not send. And when I look at the VPN status message I see it sending
| only about 2kB/sec (average).
|
| Using Eudora I tried sending the same large(ish -- 1MB) file from one
| of my private accounts to the other. Send took about 8sec, and
| receive about 3sec, so my ISP connection is fine.
|
| Could it be something with the VPN server?
|
| Andrew
|
| Milly Staples - [MVP - Outlook] wrote:
|| What type of authentication do you have set for your connection?
|| Kerberos or NTLM/Kerberos?
||
|| --
|| Milly Staples - [MVP Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the news group. Unsolicited mail sent to my
|| personal address will be deleted without reading.
||
||
|| After furious head scratching, ausi61a <[email protected]> asked:
||
||| Hi,
|||
||| I've been fighting with an interesting problem for about a week now
||| and it's stumping both myself and our IT person. I've been happily
||| using outlook 2003 for about 8 months over the company VPN (sonic
||| wall) and about a week ago it started playing up. I have a good
||| connection between my laptop and the company lan. Outlook connects
||| to the exchange server (older version I beleive). I deleted my
||| profile and created a new one. Outlook was able to verify the
||| server name and the username, and then happily created a new OST
||| file (over 1GB so having proven the connectionis reliable I know
||| not to do that again).
|||
||| My problem is that despite this good connection, Outlook was
||| refusing to send, or receive emails. The icon in hte system tray
||| cycles between two alerts:
||| "Outlook is trying to retrieve data from the Microsoft Exchange
||| Server <exchange servername>"
||| and
||| "Connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server has been restored"
|||
||| Yesterday I downloaded and installed Office 2003 SP2. The behavior
||| changed slightly. I was able to send a test email to my private
||| account, but am Outlook is still unable to retrieve emails. I know
||| they are there and the server is up because OWA works and I can ping
||| the server.
|||
||| Any ideas?

 

[ausi61a]

Millie, ANYONE!

The VPN connection is not slow. Only Outlook is slow. If I test the
VPN connection, or even the Exchange server (using OWA) I get around
1200k bits/sec net upload and 3000k bits/sec download on larger files.

I.e. The problem is either the Outlook client or the Server. Since I'm
the only one of over a dozen staff who use Outlook over the VPN who
have this my conclusion has been that it's either the client on my
machine, or the network settings somehow affecting ONLY outlook. I.e.
something in the network settings on my machine effecting things.

Do you have any suggestions about what to look for?

Do you know of registry or client settings that could make it slow, or
fix it? I have already tried the following (and this also leads me to
beleive the problem is in my laptop):
Changed the value of
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail\JunkMailImportLists
= 0
and
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\CancelRPC\TimeToShowCancelDialog
= 0x0001d4c0

I have tried appending the dns suffixes from our work domain, or just
leaving TCP/IP settings to append primary and connection specific
suffixes

I have tried deleting the Outlook profile and creating a new profile.

I even tried restoring my hard drive to a time when email worked
reliably.

I tried explicitly opening ports 25 and 113 in the applications/gaming
section of my router.

I tried using Metro WiFi (free wireless).

None of the above things changed the problem (which again, seems to be
that timeouts are generated when emails are larger than about 1kB -- is
that perhaps larger than 1 Ethernet frame?)

Are you aware of some commands/programs I can use (in cmd window?) to
actually test the relevant port/network speed?

Please read the whole message again and tell me if you have concrete
suggestions. Or perhaps a local (to Silicon Valley) network/Outlook
specialist I can pay to fix this. (Feel free to email that suggestion
to (e-mail address removed)).

Thanks again for replying. Yours in frantic head scratchiness....

Andrew

 

[ausi61a]

Any new insights anyone?
Any recommendations for consultants who understand this enough to solve
it? Am happy to pay.

 

[ausi61a]

I've fixed the problem!!!

This has been with a Linksys WRV54G VPN router. I got closer to
understanding what happened when I tried setting up a PPOE protocol on
my laptop and cut the router out of the equation -- connecting the
laptop directly to the DSL modem. This connection was rock solid, and
had no problems with Oulook via VPN.

I tried pinging the exchange server and found less than 50ms
consistently. It seemed that something in my router was causing the
problem.

I tried updating the router firmware to version 2.37, and have even
tried 2.38.6 (beta). Neither worked. I then tried
pathping <exchange server name>
in the cmd window.
This showed just two hops over the vpn to the exchange server with
total latency less than 50ms - a long way from the 5sec needed for
Outlook to timeout.

This led me to the conclusion that the server was either dropping IP
packets from Outlook or breaking them somehow.

Although this makes me nervous, I tried setting MTU to manual, 1458
bytes.
Bingo. Outlook is rock solid, and all other applications seem to
perform perfectly.

WARNING: If you are reading this and looking for a solution, to similar
problems, make sure you save your router configuration before you set
it. It's possible that setting MTU to a fixed value may mess something
up and you may have to reset the router to factory defauts to get
things to work.

The curious might wonder what it is about Outlook that caused problems
with IP packets being dropped when all other applications on my laptop
seemed to work fine. And Outlook seemed to be causing these IP packets
to be dropped only when sending email. It would download a new offline
folders file from the exchange server without a hiccough. Something
for MSFT to look at perhaps?

I'm just happy to have Outlook working again. Good luck to anyone who
has the same issues.

 

[ausi61a]

I've fixed the problem!!!

This has been with a Linksys WRV54G VPN router. I got closer to
understanding what happened when I tried setting up a PPOE protocol on
my laptop and cut the router out of the equation -- connecting the
laptop directly to the DSL modem. This connection was rock solid, and
had no problems with Oulook via VPN.

I tried pinging the exchange server and found less than 50ms
consistently. It seemed that something in my router was causing the
problem.

I tried updating the router firmware to version 2.37, and have even
tried 2.38.6 (beta). Neither worked. I then tried
pathping <exchange server name>
in the cmd window.
This showed just two hops over the vpn to the exchange server with
total latency less than 50ms - a long way from the 5sec needed for
Outlook to timeout.

This led me to the conclusion that the server was either dropping IP
packets from Outlook or breaking them somehow.

Although this makes me nervous, I tried setting MTU to manual, 1458
bytes.
Bingo. Outlook is rock solid, and all other applications seem to
perform perfectly.

WARNING: If you are reading this and looking for a solution, to similar
problems, make sure you save your router configuration before you set
it. It's possible that setting MTU to a fixed value may mess something
up and you may have to reset the router to factory defauts to get
things to work.

The curious might wonder what it is about Outlook that caused problems
with IP packets being dropped when all other applications on my laptop
seemed to work fine. And Outlook seemed to be causing these IP packets
to be dropped only when sending email. It would download a new offline
folders file from the exchange server without a hiccough. Something
for MSFT to look at perhaps?

I'm just happy to have Outlook working again. Good luck to anyone who
has the same issues.

 

[ausi61a]

I've fixed the problem!!!

This has been with a Linksys WRV54G VPN router. I got closer to
understanding what happened when I tried setting up a PPOE protocol on
my laptop and cut the router out of the equation -- connecting the
laptop directly to the DSL modem. This connection was rock solid, and
had no problems with Oulook via VPN.

I tried pinging the exchange server and found less than 50ms
consistently. It seemed that something in my router was causing the
problem.

I tried updating the router firmware to version 2.37, and have even
tried 2.38.6 (beta). Neither worked. I then tried
pathping <exchange server name>
in the cmd window.
This showed just two hops over the vpn to the exchange server with
total latency less than 50ms - a long way from the 5sec needed for
Outlook to timeout.

This led me to the conclusion that the server was either dropping IP
packets from Outlook or breaking them somehow.

Although this makes me nervous, I tried setting MTU to manual, 1458
bytes.
Bingo. Outlook is rock solid, and all other applications seem to
perform perfectly.

WARNING: If you are reading this and looking for a solution, to similar
problems, make sure you save your router configuration before you set
it. It's possible that setting MTU to a fixed value may mess something
up and you may have to reset the router to factory defauts to get
things to work.

The curious might wonder what it is about Outlook that caused problems
with IP packets being dropped when all other applications on my laptop
seemed to work fine. And Outlook seemed to be causing these IP packets
to be dropped only when sending email. It would download a new offline
folders file from the exchange server without a hiccough. Something
for MSFT to look at perhaps?

I'm just happy to have Outlook working again. Good luck to anyone who
has the same issues.

 

[ausi61a]

I've fixed the problem!!!

This has been with a Linksys WRV54G VPN router. I got closer to
understanding what happened when I tried setting up a PPOE protocol on
my laptop and cut the router out of the equation -- connecting the
laptop directly to the DSL modem. This connection was rock solid, and
had no problems with Oulook via VPN.

I tried pinging the exchange server and found less than 50ms
consistently. It seemed that something in my router was causing the
problem.

I tried updating the router firmware to version 2.37, and have even
tried 2.38.6 (beta). Neither worked. I then tried
pathping <exchange server name>
in the cmd window.
This showed just two hops over the vpn to the exchange server with
total latency less than 50ms - a long way from the 5sec needed for
Outlook to timeout.

This led me to the conclusion that the server was either dropping IP
packets from Outlook or breaking them somehow.

Although this makes me nervous, I tried setting MTU to manual, 1458
bytes.
Bingo. Outlook is rock solid, and all other applications seem to
perform perfectly.

WARNING: If you are reading this and looking for a solution, to similar
problems, make sure you save your router configuration before you set
it. It's possible that setting MTU to a fixed value may mess something
up and you may have to reset the router to factory defauts to get
things to work.

The curious might wonder what it is about Outlook that caused problems
with IP packets being dropped when all other applications on my laptop
seemed to work fine. And Outlook seemed to be causing these IP packets
to be dropped only when sending email. It would download a new offline
folders file from the exchange server without a hiccough. Something
for MSFT to look at perhaps?

I'm just happy to have Outlook working again. Good luck to anyone who
has the same issues.

 

[ausi61a]

I've fixed the problem!!!

This has been with a Linksys WRV54G VPN router. I got closer to
understanding what happened when I tried setting up a PPOE protocol on
my laptop and cut the router out of the equation -- connecting the
laptop directly to the DSL modem. This connection was rock solid, and
had no problems with Oulook via VPN.

I tried pinging the exchange server and found less than 50ms
consistently. It seemed that something in my router was causing the
problem.

I tried updating the router firmware to version 2.37, and have even
tried 2.38.6 (beta). Neither worked. I then tried
pathping <exchange server name>
in the cmd window.
This showed just two hops over the vpn to the exchange server with
total latency less than 50ms - a long way from the 5sec needed for
Outlook to timeout.

This led me to the conclusion that the server was either dropping IP
packets from Outlook or breaking them somehow.

Although this makes me nervous, I tried setting MTU to manual, 1458
bytes.
Bingo. Outlook is rock solid, and all other applications seem to
perform perfectly.

WARNING: If you are reading this and looking for a solution, to similar
problems, make sure you save your router configuration before you set
it. It's possible that setting MTU to a fixed value may mess something
up and you may have to reset the router to factory defauts to get
things to work.

The curious might wonder what it is about Outlook that caused problems
with IP packets being dropped when all other applications on my laptop
seemed to work fine. And Outlook seemed to be causing these IP packets
to be dropped only when sending email. It would download a new offline
folders file from the exchange server without a hiccough. Something
for MSFT to look at perhaps?

I'm just happy to have Outlook working again. Good luck to anyone who
has the same issues.

 

[ausi61a]

I've fixed the problem!!!

This has been with a Linksys WRV54G VPN router. I got closer to
understanding what happened when I tried setting up a PPOE protocol on
my laptop and cut the router out of the equation -- connecting the
laptop directly to the DSL modem. This connection was rock solid, and
had no problems with Oulook via VPN.

I tried pinging the exchange server and found less than 50ms
consistently. It seemed that something in my router was causing the
problem.

I tried updating the router firmware to version 2.37, and have even
tried 2.38.6 (beta). Neither worked. I then tried
pathping <exchange server name>
in the cmd window.
This showed just two hops over the vpn to the exchange server with
total latency less than 50ms - a long way from the 5sec needed for
Outlook to timeout.

This led me to the conclusion that the server was either dropping IP
packets from Outlook or breaking them somehow.

Although this makes me nervous, I tried setting MTU to manual, 1458
bytes.
Bingo. Outlook is rock solid, and all other applications seem to
perform perfectly.

WARNING: If you are reading this and looking for a solution, to similar
problems, make sure you save your router configuration before you set
it. It's possible that setting MTU to a fixed value may mess something
up and you may have to reset the router to factory defauts to get
things to work.

The curious might wonder what it is about Outlook that caused problems
with IP packets being dropped when all other applications on my laptop
seemed to work fine. And Outlook seemed to be causing these IP packets
to be dropped only when sending email. It would download a new offline
folders file from the exchange server without a hiccough. Something
for MSFT to look at perhaps?

I'm just happy to have Outlook working again. Good luck to anyone who
has the same issues.

 

[ausi61a]

I've fixed the problem!!!

This has been with a Linksys WRV54G VPN router. I got closer to
understanding what happened when I tried setting up a PPOE protocol on
my laptop and cut the router out of the equation -- connecting the
laptop directly to the DSL modem. This connection was rock solid, and
had no problems with Oulook via VPN.

I tried pinging the exchange server and found less than 50ms
consistently. It seemed that something in my router was causing the
problem.

I tried updating the router firmware to version 2.37, and have even
tried 2.38.6 (beta). Neither worked. I then tried
pathping <exchange server name>
in the cmd window.
This showed just two hops over the vpn to the exchange server with
total latency less than 50ms - a long way from the 5sec needed for
Outlook to timeout.

This led me to the conclusion that the server was either dropping IP
packets from Outlook or breaking them somehow.

Although this makes me nervous, I tried setting MTU to manual, 1458
bytes.
Bingo. Outlook is rock solid, and all other applications seem to
perform perfectly.

WARNING: If you are reading this and looking for a solution, to similar
problems, make sure you save your router configuration before you set
it. It's possible that setting MTU to a fixed value may mess something
up and you may have to reset the router to factory defauts to get
things to work.

The curious might wonder what it is about Outlook that caused problems
with IP packets being dropped when all other applications on my laptop
seemed to work fine. And Outlook seemed to be causing these IP packets
to be dropped only when sending email. It would download a new offline
folders file from the exchange server without a hiccough. Something
for MSFT to look at perhaps?

I'm just happy to have Outlook working again. Good luck to anyone who
has the same issues.

 

[ausi61a]

I've fixed the problem!!!

This has been with a Linksys WRV54G VPN router. I got closer to
understanding what happened when I tried setting up a PPOE protocol on
my laptop and cut the router out of the equation -- connecting the
laptop directly to the DSL modem. This connection was rock solid, and
had no problems with Oulook via VPN.

I tried pinging the exchange server and found less than 50ms
consistently. It seemed that something in my router was causing the
problem.

I tried updating the router firmware to version 2.37, and have even
tried 2.38.6 (beta). Neither worked. I then tried
pathping <exchange server name>
in the cmd window.
This showed just two hops over the vpn to the exchange server with
total latency less than 50ms - a long way from the 5sec needed for
Outlook to timeout.

This led me to the conclusion that the server was either dropping IP
packets from Outlook or breaking them somehow.

Although this makes me nervous, I tried setting MTU to manual, 1458
bytes.
Bingo. Outlook is rock solid, and all other applications seem to
perform perfectly.

WARNING: If you are reading this and looking for a solution, to similar
problems, make sure you save your router configuration before you set
it. It's possible that setting MTU to a fixed value may mess something
up and you may have to reset the router to factory defauts to get
things to work.

The curious might wonder what it is about Outlook that caused problems
with IP packets being dropped when all other applications on my laptop
seemed to work fine. And Outlook seemed to be causing these IP packets
to be dropped only when sending email. It would download a new offline
folders file from the exchange server without a hiccough. Something
for MSFT to look at perhaps?

I'm just happy to have Outlook working again. Good luck to anyone who
has the same issues.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I've fixed the problem!!!

But apparently introduced another. Nine posts of the same message.

 

[ausi61a]

Funny hey! Kept getting a message from the server that it was unable
to post the message and I should try again in 30sec. Just gave up.
Checked just now and saw the fun. Seems there's no way to delete
posts...

 

[ausi61a]

Funny hey! Kept getting a message from the server that it was unable
to post the message and I should try again in 30sec. Just gave up.
Checked just now and saw the fun. Seems it's possible to delete your
own
posts so I removed the extras.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Funny hey! Kept getting a message from the server that it was unable
to post the message and I should try again in 30sec. Just gave up.
Checked just now and saw the fun. Seems there's no way to delete
posts...

Consider using a real newsreader instead of the flakey web interface. You'd
be able to delete your messages when needed and you won't have posting
errors that result in multiplicates.