Problem connecting to Exchange with wireless 1

[Davetoo]

Ok, I'm stumped.

Exchange 2000 all patched. Outlook 2000, 2003, 2007. Cisco VPN back to the network.

If a user connects up with a wire, they have no problems. If the same user connects up to a wireless connection, they can't open Outlook. It times out and gives the error message that it's unable to connect to the Exchange server. I've populated the clients hosts file and they've confirmed they can ping the Exchange server by name and IP address.

I had one client use Outlook 2000, then upgraded to 2003, then upgraded to 2007, and all three times this would happen. They can sometimes connect wireless just fine, but eventually it will stop.

Can't figure this one out and don't know where to look next.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.
The poster formerly known as lander215

 

[Zelandakh]

I'd say this is a WINS / DNS issue. In addition to the hosts file, try an lmhosts file as well.

 

[Davetoo]

Forgot about lmhosts...I'll give that a try and let you know.

Thanks.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.
The poster formerly known as lander215

 

[brontosaurus]

If that doesn't work, try toggling the "Transparent Tunneling" setting on the VPN client (if it's enabled, disable it, or vice-versa), then connect again. If that doesn't work, try lowering the base MTU for your wireless card to something like 512K.

 

[Davetoo]

User reported back that the lmhosts solved the problem.

Thanks!

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.
The poster formerly known as lander215

 

[Davetoo]

The user called me back this morning and the problem is not fixed. It worked just fine last night...but when he connected up this morning Outlook would not open.

I took control of his system remotely and adjusted the MTU down to 512, disabled the tranparent tunneling, but still no go.

I can ping the exchange server just fine from his system and other network functions work fine.

I tried opening up OWA but it wouldn't open his mailbox either...it hung with the OWA window starting to open, but nothing happened.

I'm baffled.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.
The poster formerly known as lander215

 

[Zelandakh]

OK, so let's ignore Outlook for the moment and concentrate on OWA which is a simpler issue.

Once you establish the VPN are there any errors in event viewer on the VPN auth server?

Check the routing tabler (route print) on the client both before and after establishing the VPN and see if there is an obvious issue there (unlikely).

If you \\exchangeservername from the client, what happens?

 

[Davetoo]

No events on the VPN server, everything is fine there.

Haven't checked the routing table yet, but I will...don't suspect any issues since it pings and resolves FQDN just fine.

User gets the box to log on to OWA, and accepts the logon credentials, but it never opens.



I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.
The poster formerly known as lander215

 

[abonn]

I am having this same issue with a user. I have tried all of the suggestions but still no resolution. Did anyone get this solved?

 

[Davetoo]

Actually, an update to the Cisco VPN Client (from 4.6 to 4.8) resolved my issues. My bad, I should have come back and updated this thread.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.