Outlook 2003 offline issues

[Ash57]

Quick overview of our setup. We have a single central exchange server that our users from our remote locations connect to over a T1.

I have one user who's Outlook periodically will go to offline because it says it cannot connect to the exchange server. However the user still has internet connection and can browse to network shares. All of our remote users (people 10+ miles from our server) have their "Use cached exchange mode" option checked, and from all those users this is the only one I know of who is experiencing this problem. What is really strange is this user can press the "Send/Receive" button and their outlook will connect to the exchange server and send and receive their email, it just doesn’t do it automatically when it is showing as offline.


The only thing I have really done has been to delete and create this user's profile again which works for a while but its sort of hit and miss how long fix the issue. The user can also use the send/receive button as well but that is not very practical. Anything else to try outside of reinstalling office, anyone else seen this issue in their organization?

Thanks.

 

[jimp56]

maybe you can alter the timeout value for outlook's connection to the server?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293650/EN-US/

"Changing the "Cancel Request" Dialog Box Time-Out Value"

the actual reg key specified might be different for OL 2003.

 

[Stabbs1998]

I had this problem as well. I was actually coming here to find the solution. However, I finally figured out the problem by accident. I hope this information is helpful to you. But my problem sounds exactly the same. So this is what you do.

On the bottom right of the outlook, there is an icon and some text. It says, "offline" on an outlook that is having this problem. Click the text, and a small menu comes up. Click the option that says "Work Offline". It should have a check mark on it at first, so you will be unchecking it. Then outlook will connect, and the problem is solved.

I don't know how it got checked on mine, but somehow it did. I could still push the send/receive button, but it wouldn't let me just have outlook check automatically.

 

[Stabbs1998]

Oh, by the way, let me know if this fixed yoru problem.

 

[Ash57]

Stabbs1998-

You know I thought I tried to do that however I still dont think it could connect to the exchange server. I do appreciate your suggestion.

As my own personal fix to this users issue I went to Outlook and Options, Mail Setup tab and then Send/Receive button. I checked the box to schedule an automatic send/receive every 1 minute under the option when Outlook is off line.

It works but again I am stumped why it says Outlook is offline yet you do a manual send receive and it connects to the exchange server just fine, Outlook sends email waiting in the outbox and downloads new mail to the in box.