Outlook 2003 - Can't connect to incoming pop3 mail server

[Mark Brown]

Hello,
I'm having a really odd Outlook 2003 problem I was hoping one of you
could shed some light on for me.

One of my users has been running fine for months. No problems at all
then all the sudden yesterday morning when doing a automatic or
manual Send/Recieve connecting to the Outgoing SMTP server looks like
it works but he started getting the following errors when trying to
connect to the Incoming pop3 server "Task 'mailserver - receiving'
reported error (0x80040154) : 'Unkown Error 0x80040154'." Then
sometimes the error changes to ""Task 'mailserver - receiving'
reported error (0x8004210A) : 'The operation timed out waiting for a
response from the receiving (POP) server. If you continue to receive
this message, contact your server administrator or Internet Service
provider (ISP).'."

A little bit about our network. We host our own email and the SMTP
and POP3 servers are on the same server. We are running Linux and
using Sendmail and the server is up and running as usual. No one else
is having this problem. I installed Mozilla Thunderbird and it works
fine with his account going to the same server. I tried my mail
account in his Outlook and got the same error so I know it's not his
account, it's his Outlook.

I have been looking everywhere for things to try to fix this, and have
tried all the applicable KB articles for the errors listed above.

I removed Office and reinstalled it. Same problem. Removed it again
and this time when through the registry and cleaned out all the Office
and outlook stuff. One thing of interest. After removing and
reinstalling Office all the account settings stayed on the computer.
I was hoping to remove them and redo the account settings. After
reinstalling Office/Outlook for the 2nd time and still getting the
same errors I deleted the accounts and tried again. No luck, same
errors.

I disabled the A/V software completely and that did not affect the
issue at all.

Also, when I go into the account settings and use the Test account
button it almost immediately fails when trying to find the Outgoing
and Incoming Servers. Thats really weird because when you do a
Send/Recieve it finds the Outgoing server and displays a green check
mark.

I turned on logging for Outlook and don't see any errors in the log.
I also sniffed the network segment that pc is on and the pc is
transmitting Zero packets from Outlook when doing a send and receive.

All other network services are working fine. Web, Email from
Thunderbird, FTP, DNS, Etc.

Any idea's on where to go from here?

Thanks a million for your time!!!
Mark

 

[Alex Yu]

Any idea's on where to go from here?

See if this helps:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=277964

[Listening to: David Byrne - U.B. Jesus]

--
Alex Yu
http://mucha.us/blogs/alex/

This posting represents my own opinion, and in no way claims
to represent the views of Microsoft Corporation. This posting
is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Please do not send e-mail directly to this alias. This alias
is for newsgroup purposes only. Remove "online." if you would
like to reach me privately.

 

[Jeff Stephenson [MSFT]]

Have you checked the SSL settings (on the Advanced tab of the account)? If
you're trying to do SSL but the server doesn't support it, you could get the
timeout. If that isn't the problem, could you post the logfile you get after
you get the timeout error?

 

[vijay.vakacharla]

Hello,
I'm having a really odd Outlook 2003 problem I was hoping one of you
could shed some light on for me.

One of my users has been running fine for months. No problems at all
then all the sudden yesterday morning when doing a automatic or
manual Send/Recieve connecting to the Outgoing SMTP server looks like
it works but he started getting the following errors when trying to
connect to the Incoming pop3 server "Task 'mailserver - receiving'
reported error (0x80040154) : 'Unkown Error 0x80040154'." Then
sometimes the error changes to ""Task 'mailserver - receiving'
reported error (0x8004210A) : 'The operation timed out waiting for a
response from the receiving (POP) server. If you continue to receive
this message, contact your server administrator or Internet Service
provider (ISP).'."

A little bit about our network. We host our own email and the SMTP
and POP3 servers are on the same server. We are running Linux and
using Sendmail and the server is up and running as usual. No one else
is having this problem. I installed Mozilla Thunderbird and it works
fine with his account going to the same server. I tried my mail
account in his Outlook and got the same error so I know it's not his
account, it's his Outlook.

I have been looking everywhere for things to try to fix this, and have
tried all the applicable KB articles for the errors listed above.

I removed Office and reinstalled it. Same problem. Removed it again
and this time when through the registry and cleaned out all the Office
and outlook stuff. One thing of interest. After removing and
reinstalling Office all the account settings stayed on the computer.
I was hoping to remove them and redo the account settings. After
reinstalling Office/Outlook for the 2nd time and still getting the
same errors I deleted the accounts and tried again. No luck, same
errors.

I disabled the A/V software completely and that did not affect the
issue at all.

Also, when I go into the account settings and use the Test account
button it almost immediately fails when trying to find the Outgoing
and Incoming Servers. Thats really weird because when you do a
Send/Recieve it finds the Outgoing server and displays a green check
mark.

I turned on logging for Outlook and don't see any errors in the log.
I also sniffed the network segment that pc is on and the pc is
transmitting Zero packets from Outlook when doing a send and receive.

All other network services are working fine. Web, Email from
Thunderbird, FTP, DNS, Etc.

Any idea's on where to go from here?

Thanks a million for your time!!!
Mark

 

[Guest]

Mark any luck I have the same problem. all other computers on the server work
except 1.
thanks
Myrle

 

[Jeff Stephenson [MSFT]]

That 0x80040154 error code means that there's some COM class that's not
registered, which makes me suspect that perhaps the user uninstalled
Outlook Express on his machine. Outlook uses one of the components of
Outlook Express. If that's not it, perhaps a Detect and Repair on his
Outlook will help.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Jeff, but the weird part is this system is using Outlook Express fine.
and I tried using detect & repair but did not work. I also made sure all
updates were on his computer as well.
Any thing else we can try?
thanks
Mcunis

 

[Jeff Stephenson [MSFT]]

The only thing I can think of is to uninstall and then reinstall Outlook,
in hopes that some configuration issue that Detect and Repair missed will
get fixed...

 

[Guest]

Good Day,

I've had the same problem with Outlook XP (2002) w/ SP3, running on XP Pro
2002 w/SP2.

Outlook will work fine for a few days. My laptop will hibernate each
evening. After a few days, it will fail to get the email with the 0x8004210A
(timeout waiting for POP server) error. The only solution is to reboot.
Logging out/in doesn't solve it, nor does exiting outlook. I do have NIS
2005 running with the Anti-spam.

Could NIS, or a windows bug (no..not that) be killing off a COM utility, or
similar service, on the local maching, as another thread has hinted?

Good hunting,
Jim

 

[Guest]

The only thing I can think of is to uninstall and then reinstall Outlook,
in hopes that some configuration issue that Detect and Repair missed will
get fixed...