Connecting Via "Connect to Small Business Server Connection" and IPranges

We run a small company with SBS 2003 server. Everything is working fine so far, last week we decided to enhance the same little bit and hence we setup remote access so that our few selected users can get emails via OWA and can access the server remotely. Fortunately it is working fine too.

The problem started when my Boss bought a new laptop and want to set it up in a way that he can receive Outlook mails directly from the server and access the server files as well. I took the laptop home and did the configuration. I installed SBS connection manager and when tried to connect the laptop, I am able to connect it using ‘Connect to Small Business Server Connection’ but Outlook is not able connecting for some reason. I don’t know why. Also there is an icon in the corner which says that server is unavailable.

The only reason that comes to my mind is the IP range. Do you thing the same IP range can be the problem of my Home network and SBS server? It is as follows:

My home network has a range of 192.168.1.0 - 254 (255.255.255.0) with the router on 192.168.1.254
The SBS server has a range of 192.168.1.0 - 254 (255.255.255.255) with the router on 192.168.1.254

Please help.

As far as Outlook is concerned, I would suggest you to instead of VPN better configure outlook to work via RPC/HTTPS. Here are settings you need to do:

• Accounts
• Exchange Account
• Advanced (2007)
• Connection Tab
• Exchange Proxy Settings:
• https://myrww.mysbsdomain.com
• Check: Only connect to proxy ...
• msstd:myrww.mysbsdomain.com
• Change Proxy Authentication to Basic.
• OK ... Next ... Finish.

Once done, restart the Outlook and you will be prompted for User ID and Password. Remember username will be mysbsdomain\username. Now it should work fine.

And as the icon says Server is unavailable, ensure that your server is not on 192.168.0.0/24, 1.0/24, 2.0/24, 3.0/24,
or 4.0/24 because some common consumer internet router/gateways use those IP ranges out of the box and that will muck up any VPN connections.

I just changed the network of my Linksys router to 192.168.9.x because it was causing me testing problems at one account.

Hello CoYoTeA, thank you very much for the help. As you said I changed the settings in Outlook and now it is connecting properly without any problems. I don’t even need to use mall business connection.