Mailboxes won't update automatically after moving to Exchange 2003!!!

[Bill Nguyen]

After moving all of my users's mailboxes to the new Excange 2003 server, I
noticed that their mailboxes won't update automatically as they used to. You
have to make Outlook client window active then click on certain menu
opetions (such as send/receive or moving from 1 folder to another) in order
for OL to start updating inbox with new emails.
For some clients, I created a new OL profile and they start working
properly, but many others don't!
Is there any special setup/configuration that I need to perform?
Thanks a million!
Bill

 

[Bill Nguyen]

Dear Matthew;
Thanks for the tip. I checked off the cache on my own OL profile. However,
the problem appears on other OL clients (OL2002 SP2 and earlier) as well.
Any idea on how to deal with these clients?
Thanks again
Bill

If you also have Outlook 2003 then you may be using Cache mode and it is

connecting "offline" for some reason. If you create a new profile and set it
to not use Cache mode, then it may start working as you expect. There is a
checkbox on the dialog box where you put the server name and username when
setting up the profile.

 

[Bill Nguyen]

Matthew;
Is there a possibility that Exchange 2003 defaults all clients to "cache"
mode (something that set at server level)? For OL 2003, users can choose to
turn cache mode on or off, but there's no such option for OL 2002 and
earlier. If this is the case, how can we work around this?
Just a thought.
Bill

If you also have Outlook 2003 then you may be using Cache mode and it is

connecting "offline" for some reason. If you create a new profile and set it
to not use Cache mode, then it may start working as you expect. There is a
checkbox on the dialog box where you put the server name and username when
setting up the profile.

 

[Guest]

Outlook 2003 is the 1st Outlook to have Cache mode. However, OL2002 and earlier had offline folders. If those are turned on, then you would have the problem. However, the server cannot turn that on, you have to turn that on manually for each user.
Was there a network change with the new server? It is really sounding like UDP packets are not making it to these clients. Do they have client firewalls on them? Are they all laptops that are going into some kind of sleep mode?

 

[Bill Nguyen]

These are desktop clients, connecting directly to the LAN where the Exchange
server resides. They don't need off line folders. All these mailboxes were
originally on an Exchange 5.5 server. I moved them to the 2003 server along
with all other mailboxes.
I tried to recreate the user profile. It seemed to work for a while then
started having problem again the next day.
So far, remote clients have been working fine.
Thanks again
Bill

Outlook 2003 is the 1st Outlook to have Cache mode. However, OL2002 and

earlier had offline folders. If those are turned on, then you would have the
problem. However, the server cannot turn that on, you have to turn that on
manually for each user.

Was there a network change with the new server? It is really sounding like

UDP packets are not making it to these clients. Do they have client
firewalls on them? Are they all laptops that are going into some kind of
sleep mode?

 

[Guest]

What is the operating system of the client machines having the problem? Are they all Windows XP?

What about the Exchange 2003 box? Is it Windows Server 2003? Was it a fresh install? Was it an upgrade from Exchange 5.5? Does it make any difference when you reboot the server? Do they all work for a little while? Do the same clients fail in the same way after the reboot?

 

[Bill Nguyen]

1. Client machines in question all run XP professional and OL 2002.
2. Exchange2003 installed on a Win2003 server (also a DC). It was a fresh
install. All user mailboxes were moved to this server
3. Exchange 5.5 SP4 (on Win2K SP4) is still running to handle IMS only.
4. Exchange 2003 server was rebooted before due to an unrelated problem. The
clients show the same symtomps after the reboot.
5. Clients with new profile seemed to work for a little while and then
failed again.

Thanks
Bill

What is the operating system of the client machines having the problem? Are they all Windows XP?

What about the Exchange 2003 box? Is it Windows Server 2003? Was it a

fresh install? Was it an upgrade from Exchange 5.5? Does it make any
difference when you reboot the server? Do they all work for a little while?
Do the same clients fail in the same way after the reboot?

 

[Guest]

Sorry Bill, none of the symptoms are leading to the problem that I thought they were. This is beyond my skill now. Unless someone else is able to respond to this, then I would suggest calling Microsoft PSS, they will be able to get to the problem pretty quickly. The Exchange Admin team will be the ones that will be able to solve the problem quickly, but you will likely start in the client group. They will need concurrent Netmon network captures of traffic from the client and server.

 

[Al Mulnick]

FYI: cross posting to many lists is considered rude and will often result in
people not answering that otherwise might have the answer. Do yourself a
favor and try not to cross-post in the future; ask which group is
appropriate instead.

Reboot??? What was the unrelated problem?

In order for this to function to work, UDP packets are sent from the server
to the client. Since UDP is not a guaranteed delivery, like other
protocols, the packet may get sent but if never received is never seen nor
heard from again. Many many things can interrupt this.
From what I've seen, it's not uncommon to change client software during an
upgrade. Did this happen there as well? Did your users get new software
during the change to Exchange 2003 cycle? If so, what?

How about the Exchange 2003 server? What's running on it besides Exchange
2003?

As for other applications: any client-side firewalls installed? Black-ice,
Symantec, etc?
The next obvious place to look: any network changes going on during the
upgrade cycle? New switches, hubs, routers, firmware?

These are some of the places to look. As you can tell, it's not expected
behavior that the UDP updates stop working. That's uncommon. It's just
that it's not as uncommon as one might like and is often related to other
than Exchange controlled components.


Al

Sorry Bill, none of the symptoms are leading to the problem that I thought

they were. This is beyond my skill now. Unless someone else is able to
respond to this, then I would suggest calling Microsoft PSS, they will be
able to get to the problem pretty quickly. The Exchange Admin team will be
the ones that will be able to solve the problem quickly, but you will likely
start in the client group. They will need concurrent Netmon network captures
of traffic from the client and server.

 

[Bill Nguyen]

I apologize for cross-posting. Please tell me which news group is most
appropriate for this post.
For the time being, I don't think that this has anything to do with UDP. The
network is working fine.
It must have something to do with either Exchange server or OL client
settings. We have Norton AV clietns on these machines. I'll check if any of
them have off-line folders.
Thank you all for your help.
Bill

FYI: cross posting to many lists is considered rude and will often result in
people not answering that otherwise might have the answer. Do yourself a
favor and try not to cross-post in the future; ask which group is
appropriate instead.

Reboot??? What was the unrelated problem?

In order for this to function to work, UDP packets are sent from the server
to the client. Since UDP is not a guaranteed delivery, like other
protocols, the packet may get sent but if never received is never seen nor
heard from again. Many many things can interrupt this.
From what I've seen, it's not uncommon to change client software during an
upgrade. Did this happen there as well? Did your users get new software
during the change to Exchange 2003 cycle? If so, what?

How about the Exchange 2003 server? What's running on it besides Exchange
2003?

As for other applications: any client-side firewalls installed? Black-ice,
Symantec, etc?
The next obvious place to look: any network changes going on during the
upgrade cycle? New switches, hubs, routers, firmware?

These are some of the places to look. As you can tell, it's not expected
behavior that the UDP updates stop working. That's uncommon. It's just
that it's not as uncommon as one might like and is often related to other
than Exchange controlled components.


Al

Sorry Bill, none of the symptoms are leading to the problem that I

thought
they were. This is beyond my skill now. Unless someone else is able to
respond to this, then I would suggest calling Microsoft PSS, they will be
able to get to the problem pretty quickly. The Exchange Admin team will be
the ones that will be able to solve the problem quickly, but you will likely
start in the client group. They will need concurrent Netmon network captures
of traffic from the client and server. problem.

The

while

then

would

have

 

[CraigT]

Bill.

We have a very similar problem, using Win XP + OL XP
clients on an Exchange 5.5 server. We also use Symantec
AV. I have been pointed to RPC services, have you changed
anything with these recently? We also started turning on
the XP firewall recently.

Problem still not resolved, but I'm away at the moment.
Please report back here if you figure out what is the
problem. I can't believe it not happening in more places,
especially as we have about 10-15 cases so far.


CraigT

 

[Bill Nguyen]

Craig;
I didn't have this problem while still using Exchange 5.5. The problem
started on random desktops when I moved all users to the new Exchange 2003.
I checked 2 desktops (1 having OL problem, the other doesn't) to verify
Norton AV version, disabled real-time protection, but the problem still
persist.
These desktops connect to the LAN directly, I doubt that they have anything
to do with RPC/UDP.
Please let me know if you get any new information. I'll do the same.
Thanks
Bill