OL 2003: error 0x800408FC - 'The server name you entered can not be found on the network'

[DonStarr]

Posted this in an old (29 June) thread, but thought it might be better
to create a new one, as the 'solution' in that thread doesn't work
here...

Outlook 2003 (11.8118.8132) SP2
Windows XP Pro SP2
all updated daily via "Automatic Updates"

Two POP3 accounts set up in Outlook. Using the "Test Account
Settings..." button shows no errors, and a network sniffer (Ethereal)
shows what looks like good traffic to the servers (POP3 and SMTP, for
both accounts).

Actually attempting to retrieve messages from the POP3 servers via F9
(Tools -> Send/Receive -> Send/Receive All) results in this error for
both accounts:
Task '****** - Receiving' reported error (0x800408FC) : 'The server
name you entered can not be found on the network (it might be down
temporarily). Please verify that you are online and that the server
name is correct.'

where <******> is the "Mail Account Name".

This occurs for both accounts, and also happens for each account
individually if I only have one account configured.

When the above error is displayed, Ethereal has captured *NO* network
traffic.

I have tried, with no discernable effects:
* Replace POP3/SMTP server names with explicit IP addresses
* Delete / re-create the accounts, one at a time and together
* Delete old / create new Outlook.PST file (in the default location)
* Uninstall / re-install Office 2003

Outlook Express 6, with exactly the same account settings (i.e. the
same that work in the "Test Account Settings..." function in Outlook
2003) works just fine. It can send via SMTP and receive via POP3.

Additionally, Outlook 2003 can *SEND* via SMTP. One of my accounts has
the same server and username/password settings for both POP3 and SMTP.
Outlook 2003 will happily send messages via that account. It will also
send messages on the second account, whose SMTP and POP3 servers are
different.

I've verified that no "SSL" or "Secure Password Authentication"
settings are enabled in Outlook 2003 (the Ethereal captures in the
"Test Account Settings" function show my usernames and passwords in
clear text). If this was the problem, I'd expect some network traffic
before failure.

Any ideas?

At present, I'm forced to retrieve mail with Outlook Express, move
messages into a "TransferToOutlook" folder there, use Outlook 2003 to
import from Outlook Express, then perform any reply/organization tasks
in Outlook 2003. This is, clearly, sub-optimal.

-Don

 

[F. H. Muffman]

Posted this in an old (29 June) thread, but thought it might be better
to create a new one, as the 'solution' in that thread doesn't work
here...

Outlook 2003 (11.8118.8132) SP2
Windows XP Pro SP2
all updated daily via "Automatic Updates"

Two POP3 accounts set up in Outlook. Using the "Test Account
Settings..." button shows no errors, and a network sniffer (Ethereal)
shows what looks like good traffic to the servers (POP3 and SMTP, for
both accounts).

Actually attempting to retrieve messages from the POP3 servers via F9
(Tools -> Send/Receive -> Send/Receive All) results in this error for
both accounts:
Task '****** - Receiving' reported error (0x800408FC) : 'The server
name you entered can not be found on the network (it might be down
temporarily). Please verify that you are online and that the server
name is correct.'

where <******> is the "Mail Account Name".

This occurs for both accounts, and also happens for each account
individually if I only have one account configured.

When the above error is displayed, Ethereal has captured *NO* network
traffic.

I have tried, with no discernable effects:
* Replace POP3/SMTP server names with explicit IP addresses
* Delete / re-create the accounts, one at a time and together
* Delete old / create new Outlook.PST file (in the default location)
* Uninstall / re-install Office 2003

Outlook Express 6, with exactly the same account settings (i.e. the
same that work in the "Test Account Settings..." function in Outlook
2003) works just fine. It can send via SMTP and receive via POP3.

Additionally, Outlook 2003 can *SEND* via SMTP. One of my accounts has
the same server and username/password settings for both POP3 and SMTP.
Outlook 2003 will happily send messages via that account. It will also
send messages on the second account, whose SMTP and POP3 servers are
different.

I've verified that no "SSL" or "Secure Password Authentication"
settings are enabled in Outlook 2003 (the Ethereal captures in the
"Test Account Settings" function show my usernames and passwords in
clear text). If this was the problem, I'd expect some network traffic
before failure.

Any ideas?

What Add-ins in Outlook (Tools - Options - Other - Advanced)? What else is
running on the system? I'm wondering if the Test Settings actually doesn't
use Outlook.exe but some process on your system is looking for network
traffic from outlook.exe and that's what's causing the problem.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Posted this in an old (29 June) thread, but thought it might be better
to create a new one, as the 'solution' in that thread doesn't work
here...

Try enabling diagnostic logging and see what's happening in Outlook.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831053/en-us

 

[DonStarr]

Try enabling diagnostic logging and see what's happening in Outlook.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831053/en-us

05:27:52 <<<< Logging Started (level is LTF_TRACE) >>>>
05:27:52 server1: Synch operation started (flags = 00000001)
05:27:52 server1: UploadItems: 0 messages to send
05:27:52 server1: Synch operation completed
05:27:52 server1: Synch operation started (flags = 00000030)
05:27:52 server1: DoPOPDownload(flags = 00000030, max msg = ffffffff):
full items
05:27:52 POP3 (<ip address>): Begin execution
05:27:52 POP3 (<ip address>): End execution
05:27:52 server1: ReportStatus: RSF_COMPLETED, hr = 0x800408fc
05:27:52 server1: Synch operation completed

<ip address> is the correct address for my POP3 mail server. It's been
hand-entered into Outlook 2003 in the account settings.

 

[DonStarr]

What Add-ins in Outlook (Tools - Options - Other - Advanced)?

None. Neither under "Add-In Manager..." nor under "COM Add-Ins..."

What else is running on the system?

Quite a bit, actually. But, to my knowledge, there's nothing that
wasn't installed and running 2 weeks ago, before this problem started.

I neglected to mention in my original post that everything *was*
working previously (2 weeks ago). I booted the machine one morning,
and no more POP. I'm not aware of any changes to the machine.

The problem also occurs when I boot into 'Safe mode with networking'.

I'm wondering if the Test Settings actually doesn't
use Outlook.exe but some process on your system is looking for network
traffic from outlook.exe and that's what's causing the problem.

The network captures seem to indicate that Outlook doesn't even try to
send any network traffic to the POP3 server when I do a send/receive
(though it does talk to the SMTP server without failure).

-Don

 

[Brian Tillman]

05:27:52 <<<< Logging Started (level is LTF_TRACE) >>>>
05:27:52 server1: Synch operation started (flags = 00000001)
05:27:52 server1: UploadItems: 0 messages to send
05:27:52 server1: Synch operation completed
05:27:52 server1: Synch operation started (flags = 00000030)
05:27:52 server1: DoPOPDownload(flags = 00000030, max msg = ffffffff):
full items
05:27:52 POP3 (<ip address>): Begin execution
05:27:52 POP3 (<ip address>): End execution
05:27:52 server1: ReportStatus: RSF_COMPLETED, hr = 0x800408fc
05:27:52 server1: Synch operation completed

This seems to indicate that the connection is being rejected by the POP
server. Open a command prompt window and enter

telnet servername 110

to see if you can make a connection to the POP server.

 

[news.t-online.de]

Actually attempting to retrieve messages from the POP3 servers via F9
I have the same problem, except the error code is 0x80040900, but the text
and the symptoms are the same. In my case it's Outlook 2007 with 4 mail
accounts from 3 different providers, the problem occurs with all of them. It
started yesterday morning after installing the Microsoft July patches.
Testing the account settings via "Mail" in the Control Panel works just
fine. Testing the same settings in Outlook doesn't work. Sending/receiving
mail from Outlook 2003 my laptop (using the same .pst file via WLAN) works
fine.

So far I have done the following:
Checked the event logs - found nothing related to the problem.
Used the Office 2007 diagnostic function - it found no problems.
Repaired the Office installation - didn't make a difference.
Deactivated antivirus software (Kaspersky Internet Security) - didn't make a
difference.

Since it occured right after the Automatic Update I really suspect that the
patches are responsible somehow. I did not install them on the laptop, maybe
that's why it's still working there.

Andrea

 

[DonStarr]

This seems to indicate that the connection is being rejected by the POP
server. Open a command prompt window and enter

telnet servername 110

to see if you can make a connection to the POP server.

Yes, I can connect to the POP server via telnet. (This isn't
surprising to me, since Outlook Express on the same machine is able to
retrieve mail from the same POP server with no problems.)

 

[Brian Tillman]

Yes, I can connect to the POP server via telnet. (This isn't
surprising to me, since Outlook Express on the same machine is able to
retrieve mail from the same POP server with no problems.)

If this happened to me, I'd start with a new mail profile and add the
account(s) in again from scratch.

 

[Andrea Doerges]

If this happened to me, I'd start with a new mail profile and add the
account(s) in again from scratch.

In my case that didn't help. I created a new profile and a new account.
The test connections worked, but in Outlook they didn't.
I have restored a backup image from before installing the Microsoft
Updates, and everything is fine again. The only problem now is that I
don't know which one was to blame. I'm pretty sure that it was one of
them because they were the only thing that had changed on my system
since the last time Outlook was okay.

Regards,
Andrea

 

[DonStarr]

If this happened to me, I'd start with a new mail profile and add the
account(s) in again from scratch.

Unfortunately, I've already done that without success.

 

[Andrea Doerges]

In my case that didn't help. I created a new profile and a new account.
The test connections worked, but in Outlook they didn't.
I have restored a backup image from before installing the Microsoft
Updates, and everything is fine again. The only problem now is that I
don't know which one was to blame. I'm pretty sure that it was one of
them because they were the only thing that had changed on my system
since the last time Outlook was okay.

Further to what I wrote earlier, I can now report that in my case it was
definitely caused by KB937608 - Update for Microsoft Outlook 2007. I
have installed the updates one by one on the restored system and tested
Outlook after each one. No problems until I came to KB937608. After
installing that one I couldn't send or receive mail in Outlook and even
uninstalling the update didn't fix the problem. I had to restore my
harddrive image again. Now I have installed all July updates except for
KB937608, and everything works fine. Though I'm afraid that this will
not help Don :-(

Regards,
Andrea

 

[Brian Tillman]

Further to what I wrote earlier, I can now report that in my case it
was definitely caused by KB937608 - Update for Microsoft Outlook
2007. I have installed the updates one by one on the restored system
and tested Outlook after each one. No problems until I came to
KB937608. After installing that one I couldn't send or receive mail
in Outlook and even uninstalling the update didn't fix the problem. I
had to restore my harddrive image again.

Couldn't you have just uninstalled the update rather than restored a
harddrive image?

 

[Andrea Doerges]

Couldn't you have just uninstalled the update rather than restored a
harddrive image?

Yes, that's what I meant by "...even uninstalling the update didn't fix
the problem". I did uninstall the update and reboot (cold), but the
problem remained. Maybe the uninstallation was not successful, but there
was no indication that it wasn't.

Andrea

 

[Brian Tillman]

Yes, that's what I meant by "...even uninstalling the update didn't
fix the problem".

Duh! I should clean my classes (or eyeballs).

 

[DonStarr]

If this happened to me, I'd start with a new mail profile and add the
account(s) in again from scratch.

Unfortunately, I've tried that - I get exactly the same error message
when I attempt to receive via POP3.

 

[DonStarr]

Unfortunately, I've tried that - I get exactly the same error message
when I attempt to receive via POP3.

Update...

I found a similar thread in microsoft.public.outlook.general from
2/7/2006. The OP in that thread said he was able to "fix" the problem
by adding another account to the profile, using MAPI.

I did that... added a third account so my profile looked like:
Account_1: POP/SMTP (Default)
Account_2: POP/SMTP
Account_3: Exchange

'Account_3' is completely bogus - no real server, email address, user
name, etc. specified.

A Send/Receive results in success on Account_1 and Account_2 (which
would previously give 0x800408FC), and Account_3 fails because it
cannot connect to an Exchange server.

I then deleted Account_3. Send/Receive on the other two accounts goes
back to their 0x800408FC failures. Adding it back "fixes" the two real
accounts.