Slow after rebuild 1

[RockChalk]

We recently had to rebuild our exchange server. We thought that we might as well make the server windows 2k. We are having speed issues. We notice it more when an email has an attchment or is on stationary. We are using dual processors and upgraded to 1.5 gig memory.

We didn't have this issue before the rebuild, with one processor and 512 mb memroy. All I can think of is that we change something in the setup of Exchange 5.5. We weren't here when the server was setup the first time so we aren't sure what change.

We are willing to turn things off and on to get back to normal.

RC

 

[lakhera]

i dont think your problem is related to windows 2000. can u tell me some details.

1. Which outlook client (version) you are using to access your exchange server.

2. What is the speed when u access mails without any attachments.

3. What is the speed when you access public folder or other exchange contents.

4. Is this the problem with some users or with all the users

 

[RockChalk]

1. outlook 2002
2. I don't have a speed issue with email without attchments
3. We have no problems with the public folders. The only public folders we have are clendar and contacts
4. It is effecting all users.

RC

 

[30362]

1. Outlook 2002 / 2003
2. Speed is a problem regardless of whether there is an attachment or not.
3. We don't use public folders.
4. All users.

 

[kjetilm]

We have Symantec AV for Exchange v 2.17 on all our Exchange-servers including my problem server.

Turns out the problem server was configured as mapi/vapi combination mode(recomended from Symantec). As we have had som trouble with this previously I changed it to MAPI only mode.

This seemed to do the trick! No more "Requesting data from Microsoft Exchange Server" ....

Kjetil

 

[RockChalk]

I can't believe the diff. What the heck is going on with that. Removing the VAPI. It took some time to clear up but today it's running great.

RC

 

[kjetilm]

Nice.... VAPI scans for viruses when mail is opened or saved and MAPI when it hits the Store. So the symptoms make sence I guess.

Kjetil

 

[cmeagan656]

If MAPI scans for viruses only when they hit the store and VAPI scans for viruses when mail is opened then by removing VAPI you're going to leave yourself open to viruses.

For example, if a virus infected email hits the store in the evening, but the virus signature that will catch it isn't updated until the next morning, then when the user opens the email you're going to get infected. Your anti-virus mail option won't catch it. It will probably be quarantined by the realtime on the server/workstation when the attachment is opened, but that still means you're going to have to do a system virus scan to make sure sure it didn't spread.

Personally, I prefer the inconvenience of the attachments taking 5 to 45 seconds to open. At first it really annoyed me but I'm so used to it now I don't even notice.

Just my opinion...

 

[kjetilm]

Good point. In my case I have virus check at the SMTP gateway plus I`m not allowing any .exe, .vbs etc. to pass trough the gateway and Outlook Security Settings are not allowing any type of executable to be executed directly from the message. You would always have to save it first.
This has saved us from several outbreaks when no signature was in place for the present virus.

Then there is always the clients AV as a last hurdle for the virus to pass.

I guess I could add a sheduled scan on the Store aswell to be "100%" sure.

kjetilm

 

[cmeagan656]

Same here. I've got my mail option blocking almost all level 1 attachments (there are a couple, such as .mdb which we receive legitimately) and a few other extensions that, in our enviroment, users would have no legitimate use for, so they never get to the mailboxes.

Also, with the spam filter I'm using I can block specific attachements (not just the extensions) so for the mimail worm I've blocked readnow.zip and photos.zip blocked. We can't block all .zip files because we do receive legitimate ones.

It's amazing how a good anti-virus mail option combined with a good spam filter can stop the viruses at the gate. We did similar blocks on our spam filter, using subject and text blocking, for sobig.f when it hit. We went from receiving 90 an hour system wide to zero in the time it took me to configure the spam filter (2 minutes, including restarting it).

Cheers.

 

[primetime21]

My users are experiencing the same issues with the "Outlook is retrieving Data from Exchange.."

The one thing that I've noticed is that the problem has only been with my Outlook 2002 users.

For a couple of users I've disabled the option to allow outlook to use instant messaging. This seems to have help them a little, but occationally the message still pops up.

The setup is NT Domain, Exch 5.5 Sp4

 

[Anton06]

I found this same problem with opening attachments and there be several second delay. It seemed to be resolved when I unchecked "Always ask before opening this type of file" It only workes for Outlook XP/2002. The very first attachment opened up slow, but all attachments that I opened of that type after worked fine.