Unable to access exchange - error 18497

[JMC]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: Exchange

I have "new" Macbook Pro with Office/Entourage 2008 accessing exchange 2008 (small business server 2008). All worked great upon initial configuration.

Last Monday, I had to rebuild my server with a complete new install of SBS 2008 and Exchange 2007 - this includes a re-initialization of the domain.

All of my windows/outlook computers have no issues with this re-build and are fully functional. Entourage, however, starts throwing this 18497 error, telling me that the server is "temporarily unable to complete the request."

I even have outlook on the mac running under parallels with the exact same account information - and it WORKS! This is not a server issue.

I've tried removing and re-loading entourage, new identities, different accounts, etc. Nothing seems to work.

Any ideas? PLEASE!!!!

Thank you!

Jim

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

I have "new" Macbook Pro with Office/Entourage 2008 accessing
exchange 2008 (small business server 2008). All worked great upon
initial configuration.

Last Monday, I had to rebuild my server with a complete new install
of SBS 2008 and Exchange 2007 - this includes a re-initialization of
the domain.

All of my windows/outlook computers have no issues with this re-build
and are fully functional. Entourage, however, starts throwing this
18497 error, telling me that the server is "temporarily unable to
complete the request."

I even have outlook on the mac running under parallels with the exact
same account information - and it WORKS! This is not a server issue.

This could very well be a server issue. Entourage connects via WebDAV
and Outlook connects via MAPI. Two different protocols are getting used.

Test that WebDAV is running on your server by opening Safari on your Mac
and entering http://server.domain.com/exchange. This should be an
internal name, not external.

If that doesn't work then Entourage won't work. Do you need to also
re-install Legacy Applications for Exchange?

Hope this helps!

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

 

[JMC]

Thanks for the help. Here's some additional information. All of my windows clients have their outlook connections set up to use the RPC over HTTP (outlook anywhere). On the SBS 2008 server with Exchange 2007, this URL is remote.domain.com. The URL you provided, I believe, is for a previous version of Exchange and does not work (404 error) in both Safari and IE (on a Vista machine). I log in remotely via a web browser using the remote.domain.com to view mail through the web browser too.

Using the remote.domain.com within Safari prompts me to enter my login ID and password, then presents me with the sign-in page for outlook web access.

When setting up the account in Entourage, it automatically configures to this remote.domain.com URL and the verification step verifies that Entourage is successful in its communication to the server (from a testing perspective).

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

Thanks for the help. Here's some additional information. All of my
windows clients have their outlook connections set up to use the RPC
over HTTP (outlook anywhere). On the SBS 2008 server with Exchange
2007, this URL is remote.domain.com. The URL you provided, I believe,
is for a previous version of Exchange and does not work (404 error)
in both Safari and IE (on a Vista machine). I log in remotely via a
web browser using the remote.domain.com to view mail through the web
browser too.

You can either connect through an OWA connection or a direct connection.
The instructions I gave you were for a direct connection to the user's
Exchange Server, which is preferable when on the same network as the server.

Because your direct browser connection isn't working that tells me you
probably don't have Legacy Applications installed on your back-end server.

Using the remote.domain.com within Safari prompts me to enter my
login ID and password, then presents me with the sign-in page for
outlook web access.

When setting up the account in Entourage, it automatically configures
to this remote.domain.com URL and the verification step verifies that
Entourage is successful in its communication to the server (from a
testing perspective).

If this is the address you would prefer to use then you may need to use
this format for your Exchange Server address:

server.domain.com/exchange/[email protected]

where "(e-mail address removed)" is the user's E-mail address.

Hope this helps!

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

 

[JMC]

Thanks again for the help and advice. That URL scheme is the default that is set up by MS Small Business Server 2008. I tried switching to your suggested format (server.domain.com/exchange/[email protected]) and I receive the same 18497 error).

 

[JMC]

....also, legacy applications isn't an option for installing sbs 2008. All of the standard settings used to work. Only after the re-load last week did the Mac stop working. It has previously worked on this configuration.

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

...also, legacy applications isn't an option for installing sbs 2008.
All of the standard settings used to work. Only after the re-load
last week did the Mac stop working. It has previously worked on this
configuration.

You may want to also post your question in the
microsoft.public.server.sbs newsgroup.

Did your server name change at all? Have you verified the auto-setup
actually entered all the correct settings including whether or not you
need SSL enabled?

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

 

[JMC]

Thank you, Bill. All of the settings in terms of domain and machine name are the same as before the rebuild. The Yes, SSL is needed as I don't even get a 18497 error if it is not. I do show the "lock" on the bottom-right of the Entourage screen showing that I have a secure SSL connection.

Good idea on the SBS group. I will try that too.

Jim

 

[JMC]

I've place a similar post on the SBS blog site. Thanks for the reminder. Looking at my exchange configuration, I see the Webdav configurations:

Exadmin (admin)
Exchange (mailboxes)
Exchweb (Exchange web)
Public (public folders)

The authentication is set to "basic" for exchange and Exchweb, which is the setting that seems to work on the windows machines. Originally, one of the webdav's was set to forms-based authentication. I changed it to basic.

With this updated webdav setting, I removed the entourage account and re-created it. The account set up process completed successfully in an automated process (it figured things out from my domain server) and it automatically pulled down the public folder - but not any of my personal outlook folders.

When attempting to send a message, I now receive a 170 error - quit and re-start entourage - I might need to verify and rebuild the database.

- I ran the DB verification - working correctly
- I compacted the database - completed successfully
- I rebuilt the database - completed successfully

I restarted Entourage and still receive the 170 error.

So.... this sounds like "maybe" a security issue on the server-side?

I appreciate your continued thoughts and advice.

Jim

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

I restarted Entourage and still receive the 170 error.

So.... this sounds like "maybe" a security issue on the server-side?

I appreciate your continued thoughts and advice.

I think that's a very good possibility. Unfortunately, I'm not an
Exchange administrator so I can't give you much perspective from that side.

If you find your solution, please be sure to post back here and let us
know what you found. All questions and answers become searchable for
others to find.

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

 

[JMC]

FOUND A SOLUTION!!!

I spent 2 hours on the phone today with two really good Microsoft Tech Support people - Windows Small Business Server team.

They found several issues with how SBS 2008's set up wizards ran to configure the exchange receive connectors. As a result of this mis-configuration, the Entourage could not communicate with Exchange.

All is fixed.

Thank you very much for the help!

Jim