Outlook has problems connecting to Exchange server when I use remote desktop

[rick cameron]

Hi, all

I've noticed a strange problem recently: when I connect to my PC at the
office from my home PC, using remote desktop, Outlook running on the office
PC frequently has problems connecting to the company Exchange server. I get
the following error message:

Task 'Microsoft Exchange Server' reported error (0x80040115) : 'The
connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable. Outlook must be
online or connected to complete this action.'

The problem does go away after a while, and seems to go away if I close &
re-open Outlook.

I haven't noticed the problem when I'm in the office, using the office PC
directly.

Both PCs are running Windows XP SP2. Outlook is 2003.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

- rick

 

[AlexT.]

Hi, all

I've noticed a strange problem recently: when I connect to my PC at the
office from my home PC, using remote desktop, Outlook running on the office
PC frequently has problems connecting to the company Exchange server. I get
the following error message:

Task 'Microsoft Exchange Server' reported error (0x80040115) : 'The
connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable. Outlook must be
online or connected to complete this action.'

Do you use some sort of VPN to reach you work machine via RDP ?

 

[Vanguard]

in message

Do you use some sort of VPN to reach you work machine via RDP ?

If the user successfuly gets the desktop on the remote PC using RDP then
it doesn't matter what communications channel was used. If VPN was used
but not working, the user would have never connected to their host to
login to establish a Windows session to then run applications on that
remote host. The fact the OP was able to use the remote desktop to
start Outlook means VPN was working, the direct connect was working, or
whatever was working for the OP to get to the remote host.

 

[Vanguard]

in message

Hi, all

I've noticed a strange problem recently: when I connect to my PC at
the office from my home PC, using remote desktop, Outlook running on
the office PC frequently has problems connecting to the company
Exchange server. I get the following error message:

Task 'Microsoft Exchange Server' reported error (0x80040115) : 'The
connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable. Outlook
must be online or connected to complete this action.'

The problem does go away after a while, and seems to go away if I
close & re-open Outlook.

I haven't noticed the problem when I'm in the office, using the office
PC directly.

Both PCs are running Windows XP SP2. Outlook is 2003.

Try disabling Exchange cache mode.

Remember that you are using the network connection to the remote desktop
which is the same network connection used to connect to the Exchange
server. Could be you are simply flooding your NIC with so much traffic
that delays are incurred for Outlook on the remote host trying to get at
the Exchange server.

I don't know how well RDP handles graphical data, like your desktop. If
it attempts to transmit the entire screen to reflect a single pixel
change, that's a hell of a lot of traffic. I know that some versions of
VNC will only send incremental screen changes to reduce traffic size.
You might want to try TightVNC instead of RDP.

 

[rick cameron]

in message



Try disabling Exchange cache mode.

Remember that you are using the network connection to the remote desktop
which is the same network connection used to connect to the Exchange
server. Could be you are simply flooding your NIC with so much traffic
that delays are incurred for Outlook on the remote host trying to get at
the Exchange server.

I don't know how well RDP handles graphical data, like your desktop. If
it attempts to transmit the entire screen to reflect a single pixel
change, that's a hell of a lot of traffic. I know that some versions of
VNC will only send incremental screen changes to reduce traffic size. You
might want to try TightVNC instead of RDP.

I agree with your theory, given that this seldom happens when I'm not using
RDP. I already have Exchange cache mode tuned off. Any other suggestions?

Thanks

- rick

 

[Vanguard]

in message

...

I agree with your theory, given that this seldom happens when I'm not
using RDP. I already have Exchange cache mode tuned off. Any other
suggestions?

If you are allowed by your company to connect to your workstation using
RDP then they should also allow you to use VNC. See if the same problem
occurs when using TightVNC.