Outlook cannot connect to Exchange Server

[marcelhaas]

Hello

We have strange things going on here. We are running Exchange 2003 on SBS. Periodically the Outlook Clients break the connection to the Exchange Server. Ager some minutes and restrating Outlook the Clients can connect to the server again.

Any ideas?

Thank you for your Responses!

Greetings, Marcel

 

[adcfaq]

outlook 2003 and exchange 2003 utilizing cache mode, so a disconnection and re-connection is normal.

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Sr. Directory Services/Exchange Consultant

http://adcfaq.8m.com/

 

[marcelhaas]

Hello!

Thanks for your response!

We have caching mode active to care about the ressources of our server. Do you think it's normal that the client sometimes disconnects?

Hm, there ist a Problem i found in the event logs. The RPC Packet get dropped by the server. The packets can't reach the server exactely then, when the client disconnects.

I would say it's normal, that the client disconnects sometimes for some seconds, but not for minutes like our clients do.

Any idea?

Thank you for your help!

Greetings, Marcel

 

[johng75]

it pops up and error, that there was a network error and cound not connect to the server, or something like that right?

its not really a network error, when outlook tries to "pull" all the e-mails from the server to display them to you, the user, if it does not display them within a specified timeout period ,milliseconds, it thinks there is an error and shows that box, this normally happens with larger boxes, but smaller ones are not immune, it is recomended to turn on cache mode on the client machine.

cache mode keeps a copy on your local machine so when outlook tries to referance the exchange box, it doesnt have to get all the info from the server, thus cutting down on the amount of times the error pops up, sometimes eliminating it, outlook 2003 is the only outlook to have "cache mode" all others utialize "offline files" essentially the same thing........

hope this helps shed some light on things

GL

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention
of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body,
but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up,
totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming

--"WOW-- What a Ride!"

 

[marcelhaas]

Yes, you are right! It's a netowrk error popping um. and the event log sys the following:

Remoteprozeduraufruf (EcDoConnectEx) an Server (SBS) ist mit Fehlercode (721) nach einer Wartezeit von (16) ms fehlgeschlagen; eeInfo (none).

That means, that rpc calls dont arrive at the server or got blocked or something. We have no FW rules applied at the local zone, so i cant imagine, that rpc calls got blocked.

Maybe it's a problem with the system ressources..??

We have "Caching Mode" activated on all clients. Some mailboxes grow really big.. So i decided to use ched mode..

Do you think i wouldnt have the problem without caching Mode?

Greetings, Marcel

 

[Xanaxo]

There can be a single cause or several related causes for this particular dialog box. The "Requesting data from Exchange server..." dialog appears when Outlook 2002 or 2003 has not received a server response to a request for 5 seconds or more. So anything that could cause a response to be delayed may be suspect. Some configuration options in Outlook can cause more requests to be generated so the chances of a 5 second delay rise just because of the frequency of requests. Networking issues may affect the time the response takes to be returned and performance issues on the server can cause slower responses.

The fact that these "Requesting dialog from server..." dialogs appear is not always a sign of a persistent issue. If they appear once a month for a second or two that could possibly be normal. If they appear everyday for seconds to minutes at a time then there is something causing latency in the client receiving a response to an outstanding server request.

The article below is a good place to start.

839862 How to troubleshoot the RPC Cancel Request dialog box in Outlook 2003 or

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=839862