[Fletcher Smith]

Using Outlook 2002 - Since my last overseas trip and upon return to the UK office, I am unable to connect my laptop with our office Exchange server. I used detect and repair and reset all settings to default. I can then re-set up my account details but after entering correct server address and using check name to ensure server has my name details, I get the message - unable to connect with exchange server. The fault may have been caused by trying to access the internet through an external company LAN on my last business trip.

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Heya, Fletcher, and welcome to Geeks to Go!

A quick question. When you set up the internet in the external LAN, did any settings have to be changed? I'm talking about things like DNS servers or anything of that nature.

In other words, do you know what was changed in the attempts to connect you to another LAN?

[Guse]

Heya, Fletcher, and welcome to Geeks to Go!

A quick question. When you set up the internet in the external LAN, did any settings have to be changed? I'm talking about things like DNS servers or anything of that nature.

In other words, do you know what was changed in the attempts to connect you to another LAN?

[Fletcher Smith]

Hi Guse,
Thanks for takin the time to reply.
Nothing was manually changed.
When I plugged the LAN cable into my machine overseas my Zone Alarm Pro picked up the new connection and I ok'd it as a public/unsecure connection.
I did not seem to be able to get onto the internet using the foreign LAN so I disconnected the cable without manually changing any settings.
Back in the UK office I set up the new account after repairing Outlook and resetting defaults in the registry and type in the server address as 200.200.200.168 and it picks up our server Mail_Server_1 I check the names and it gives me the list with my name on it. I select my name and it says "Server Unavailable". It's as if the file or DLL or whatever my laptop uses to access out to the Exchange Server just seems not to be working. Our IT guy has unloaded Office XP completely and reloaded it afresh but no good, same problem with Outlook.

[Guse]

Wow. That's an unusual problem...

Let's try something for giggles (tell me if you've already done this):

Try diabling Zone Alarm for a couple of minutes and see if Outlook can connect fully then.

Let me know how that comes out or if you've already tried it.

[Fletcher Smith]

Hi Guse,
Yep tried that one, no difference.
It's definately a problem with my Laptop as our IT guy set me up on a spare desktop and I connected to the exchange server and accessed the outlook files with no problem. So it's a local machine problem.

[Guse]

I have no doubt it's your laptop's issue.

Now, you said that if you type in the IP address it actually gives you the computer's network name? That would seem to rule out DNS...

I guess I'd like to make you're that you're fully authenticating. If you go to the command prompt and release and renew your IP address, does everything go off without a hitch?

go to Start | Run and type in "cmd" (no quotes)
then, type in "ipconfig /release" (no quotes) and hit enter
then, type in "ipconfig /renew" (no quotes) and hit enter

Let me know what it says (not the IP, just whether or not it could)... or let me know if you've already tried this, too.

Yeah, I'm grasping at straws here.

Edited by Guse, 23 June 2005 - 08:03 AM.

[dsenette]

is your company using a proxy server? something may have changed in your settings if this is the case. you may want to check in your lan settings of your connection whether the bypass proxy for local addresses box is checked or not. sometimes this will make it try to go through the proxy to get back in and if your proxy settings are wrong then it wont work

[Fletcher Smith]

Thanks Guse & dsenette,
I will try your suggestions tomorrow, I'm at home now.
We use NT4 and my software is 2000Pro.
I get the netlogon ok when I start windows 2000 but it seems like my computer is not registering with all the various servers on our network as I have discovered today that some of the printers on one server are not available and they used to be. Also when I used to go to my network places i could see all the other machines but not anymore.
Anyway I will try your suggestions tomorrow and let you know.
Thanks so much for taking the time, our IT guy has gone on summer vacation now so I'm really stuck.

[dsenette]

it seems like you're either not authenticating to the network or your ip is wrong

[Fletcher Smith]

I was able to successfully release and renew the IP Address.
I got Win200 IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter local area connection:
Connection specific DNS suffix : <domain reference>
IP address : 200.200.200.34
Subnet mask : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway : 200.200.200.9
Using ipconfig/all did not reveal any odd settings.
We have three servers: FS1 ( the main server); Commercial_1 which is not much used; and the Outlook Server - Mail_Server_1
I used to be able to see all before my last trip.
Now I can only see FS1 and it's resources and users and drives.
I can access my Outlook mail account via the internet or the intranet but this is severely limiting the funcionality, as it operates as a sort of "dial-in" method.
I realise I am testing your patience here guys and apologise for that.
When the IT guy gets back it will unfortunately be a case of copying all my data files to one of the servers I can see and wiping out my Laptop completely and reformatting and restarting! Drastic and annoying for something like an Outlook fault but I guess that's why many companies use Pop3 with Express instead of Outlook.
Thanks so much for your help so far, if you can think of anything else I have another week of trying before the IT guy returns.

[Guse]

You're not testing my patience, you're testing my self-confidence. Formatting would be the easiest, I guess, I'm just not a fan of formatting in general. You're not really "fixing" anything that way... it would be like the oil filter in your car needing replacing so you rebuild the entire engine.

So, you have and can get a valid IP, so DHCP is working. Can you ping the mail server at all?

First off, try to ping it using it's network name. I know you said it resolved the name before, but I just want to make sure...

• Go to Start | Run
• Type in "cmd" (no quotes) and hit enter
• At the prompt, type "ping Mail_Server_1" (no quotes) and hit enter

If it gives you 4 successes with an IP address, we've determined that DNS is working properly.

I'm not sure I want to walk you through this, but my next suggestion would be to remove your laptop from the domain and rejoin to see how that goes...

dsenette can tell us whether or not it's a good idea

Edited by Guse, 24 June 2005 - 07:41 AM.

[dsenette]

rejoin the domain!!!yes yes yes that should do it
why didn't i think of that....all you have to do is

right click on my computer
pick properties
computer name
change
then click the radio button next to the workgroup one and just join a workgroup
shut down the pc

(if you guys are using active directory then this is where it gets to be a problem)
if you guys are using AD then you will have to wait for the directory to replicate the fact that you left the domain. unless you have access to a domain controller. if by some chance of luck you do you go to the pdc and run gpupdate /force this will update immediately
depending on the structure it may take up to 22 hours for the GP to update. that would suck.

once you can somewhat verify that this change has taken place (maybe by seeing if someone who is attatched to the network can see your pc)
start your computer back up.
right click my computer
pick properties
computer name
change
then join your domain...you may need admin privelages on the network for this too.

[Guse]

The admin privledges thing is why I was hesitant to walk him through this...

[dsenette]

indeed.....hehe if it weren't dangerous for his job i could give him a privelage escalator.

[Fletcher Smith]

Hi Guse, I pinged the Mail server and got the 4 good replies with the IP address so that's OK.
I'm now going for the rejoining of the domain, wish me luck :-) I will hopefully get back to you and dsenette shortly.