Outlook 2003 / Windows XP Tablet Edition / Exchange 5.5

[Ron Mann]

Hi all,

I'm setting up new Tablet PCs for deployment within our IT section. All
these machines have both 10/100 and 802.11g nics installed. Here's the
software load set -

Windows XP Tablet Edition
MS Office 2003, including Outlook 2003
Norton AntiVirus Corp Edition

The subnet we are connected to is behind a firewall, and uses NAT/PAT to
access the outside world. Our Exchange 5.5 Server (let's call it
MAIL_SERVER) is inside the firewall, and just like the other servers, is set
up with a static NAT path to it thru the firewall.

We are using the NT40 Domain model. Our subnet uses DHCP and WINS, no
internal DNS. Our DHCP Server hands out the addresses of DNS Servers outside
the firewall. The MAIL_SERVER is registered in WINS.

When I try to create a new mail profile in Outlook 2003, I see some strange
things happening when I click the Check Name button. I enter the server
name (MAIL_SERVER) and the user name. Then when I click the button, I get
an hourglass cursor for quite a while (over 90 seconds) then the server name
and user name become underlined, except the server name has changed to
MAIL_SERVER.domain.name.com.

If I put the numeric IP address (inside address) of the server, it changes
to MAIL_SERVER.domain.name.com after resolution.

If I open a command prompt window and ping MAIL_SERVER, I get a appropriate
response, with the inside IP address. This tells me that the name is being
resolved thru WINS.

Further confusing me is the fact that on the Tablet PC assigned to me, when
I logged onto the domain for the first time, my roaming profile was copied
down to the Tablet, and when I first fired up Outlook 2003, it connected
with no apparent delay. If I look at my Outlook profile, it shows
MAIL_SERVER without the domain suffix as the server name. If I try to set
up another profile on this machine, it adds the domain suffix.

I de-installed Outlook 2003 and installed Outlook 2002 (XP) in its place.
The problem does NOT exist in Outlook 2002. I was able to add a new profile
(let's call it profile1), and there was no appreciable delay in the name
resolution, the server name came up as MAIL_SERVER.

I then de-installed Outlook 2002 and re-installed Outlook 2003. I then
opened Outlook 2003, and it connected to MAIL_SERVER with no appreciable
delay. I checked the profile properties, and the server name was shown as
MAIL_SERVER (without the domain suffix). I closed Outlook and tried to add
another profile. The delay was there again, and when the name resolved the
server name had the domain suffix on it again.

Does anyone have any idea why Outlook 2003 is doing this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ron Mann]

Hi all

I guess I should have searched the MS Knowledge Base. The KB article at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;831609&Product=out2003
provided my fix.

However, the registry key they suggest to edit didn't exist, I had to create
it myself. But then it all works great. Except you have to apply the
registry change for each user on the machine.