unable to connect to exchange server

[computertech2009]

I am a tech working on a network. Please excuse any incorrect networking terminology, as networking is only part of my responsibly, and not one of my strong points. Our domain is a tree in a forest of a larger agency’s domain.

Our tree has two domain controllers running windows 2003 server at our home office. We have about 20 remote locations that connect to our network via vpn routers. The remote location client pcs are running windows xp pro (some sp2 and some sp3). We have an exchange sever that another department maintains for us (I don’t have administrative access to it). The pc’s connect to our tree through a firewall system after going through their individual vpn router’s (I also don’t have access to the firewall system).

Here is the problem (which I have only noticed on client machines at the remote offices). Users are able to login to windows with their username and password without a problem. When they launch outlook (version 2003) and attempt to connect to the exchange server one of two things happens:

First scenario: they are able to connect, but they are asked to enter their username and password. If they enter their domain name\username, and then their password, in most cases they are able to connect to the exchange server. In some cases, they are not able to connect. They get stuck in a situation where exchange keeps asking for their username and password. Other users in the same office on different pc’s are able to connect to the same exchange server without a problem.

Second scenario, they launch outlook and are unable to connect to the exchange server at all. An error indicates that they are unable to connect to the server. Other users in the same office on different pc’s are able to connect to the same exchange server without a problem. When this scenario occurs, we have noticed that the users are also at times unable to connect to mapped network drives.

Additional info:
I can add the users profile to a different pc in that same office, and at times they are able to log into another pc at that office and get right into outlook and connect to the exchange server without a problem.

The problem seems to occur more frequently when a user’s password expires


What we have tried:
Resetting the user’s password via Active Directory Users and Computers – this solves most of the problems

Rebooting the domain controllers – limited success

Rebooting the local offices’ vpn router – limited success

Removing user (via Active Directory users and Computers) from any security groups that they are a member of (except the domain users security group) then adding them back to the group. – limited sucess

Resetting the user’s password (often several times) until they are able to connect to the exchange server. Once they can connect, set their password to never expire – moderate success

Bring the affected remote office pc back to our home office. Connect it directly to our home office’s network (in most cases it will work just fine now). Once the pc connects to the exchange server, set the user’s password to never expire – moderate success

Uninstalling office 2003 (on the client’s pc). Attempt to remove all outlook registry settings then reinstalling office – minimal sucess

Deleting the users account from active directory. Uninstalling office 2003 on the local pc. Recreate the user account in AD. Reinstall office 2003 and recreate the outlook profile on the client pc – moderate success

Deleting the users account from active directory. Uninstalling office 2003 on the local pc. Remove the entire user’s profile from the local pc. Recreate the user account in AD. Recreate the user’s windows profile on the local PC. Reinstall office 2003 and recreate the outlook profile on the client pc – moderate success


We have several users that have passwords that are set not to expire as a fix to this situation. It has become necessary to set all users passwords to expire to adhere to our agency’s IT security policy. Once this happens, I will no longer be able to use this workaround to patch the problem.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to review this problem!

[Baltazar]

The fix is pretty easy - you just need to delete the Exchange profile on the machine. The easiest way to do this is to right-click on the Outlook icon in the Start Menu and open the Properties window. Click on the "Show Profiles" button and you will open the "Mail" window. Then click "Remove". The next time you run Outlook you will see the initial setup wizard again.

Note: You have to delete the entire profile - if you delete just the mail server from the profile the problem doesn't go away.

[computertech2009]

Thanks for the reply. I tried deleting the entire profile from outlook and then adding it back. While trying to recreate the profile, the pc can't connect to the exchange server. Other machines in the same office with the same DNS settings work fine!