Outlook Specialist Needed

[planewatcher]

Scenario: I work in a company that employs around 100 people, each with a PC or laptop. I have been ghosting systems since I started 4 months ago. I have one laptop that will not conform. It connects to our network both directly and thru the VPN with no problems. However, no matter what user/pw we save during setup, Outlook keeps wanting to re authenticate and takes forever in doing so (up to 5 minutes) My question is "Is there a setting somewhere in Outlook itself that I have missed that could fix this one lonley computer and frustrated user?

Thanks
Jeff

 

[Kaycek]

I have a bunch of questions, ones you most likely have already asked yourself

What version of outlook and OS are you using? Is there anything different about this laptop from any of the other machines? How old is the machine? Is the frustrated user having any other problems (that he remembered to tell you about) on this system? Have you checked the Bios, and also the battery? Are you reghosting his machine? after you set up a machine, how much customization can a user do to a machine? What customizations is this user doing to his machine? Are you using Exchange as the mail server?

I have had some weird responses with XP Pro and Outlook 2003 to the extent that I won't use Outlook 2003 anymore.

If you can give us some of the answers to those questions, it might help us to help you!

Kaycek

 

[planewatcher]

Thanks for the response Kaycek.

I am using Outlook 2003 with XP Pro.
The main difference about this machine is that it is personally owned by my client. It is about 3 months old and is a really nice Dell. He does not have any other problems with accessing any of the network.
Please explain what I should look for in the BIOS, and I would "assume" that the battery is OK. I did not ghost this one entirely. I loaded Outlook across the network, I have done this to a few others. It seemed to work at first. The client was wondering if an outlook setting may have been changed somewhere somehow. Any Ideas where? Last answer, We are using Exchange Server 2003.

Thanks Again.
Jeff

 

[Kaycek]

Well, I don't know how much help I have been, Jeff, I will try tho...

First, I hear alarm bells going off when I hear you have XP and 2K3 Outlook, because mine quit working and started sending everything to either the junk or the trash folders.

What kind of login does your client use, a Basic Authentication or a Simple Authentication and Security Level (SASL)?

According to the info I have here, both protocols are enabled for a POP3 message. With the Basic method, the user is prompted for a logon which is sent across the network unencrypted.

Did you configure Secure Communications for Incoming Connections in the server? If you did so it may be that the client needs to be required to use SSL, so the login information is encrypted before transmission.

With the SASL, the Server uses NTML and standard Windows Security to validate the user's identity. The clients relay the credentials the user supplies when logging on to a Windows domain. These credentials are fully encrypted without SSL, and supply the user name and password that the server needs to log on the network.

I think I would check the logon method first. did you ghost the others Outlook accounts, and do they use the same credentials as the others use to get on to the network? If it were me, that's the first place I would check to see what might be the problem.

Also, is the user dialing in? if so have you checked his modem?

Kaycek


Kaycek

 

[GlenJohnson]

Since it's only one machine, try creating a sole entity, not ghost it. Go to start, run and type in outlook.exe /clean pst. This will setup a blank outlook, and you can try and configure it on it's own. Good luck.

Glen A. Johnson
Johnson Computer Consulting

 

[planewatcher]

Thanks for that one Glen... I will give it a try..

Jeff

 

[GlenJohnson]

Did it work?

Glen A. Johnson
Johnson Computer Consulting
Tek-Tips in Chicago IL

 

[planewatcher]

Have not had the chance to get into his machine as of yet.. Thanks for asking and I will certainly post the results...

Thanks again.
Jeff