Solution to Outlook send/receive problem caused by updates 13/3/08

[francis_e]

Hi everyone,

USE THIS ADVICE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Several people have found their Outlook disabled by today's updates.

If your send/receive stopped working today after you installed updates AND
you definitely have a good Internet connection (check this first) AND you
have not changed any settings yourself, then the update may be preventing you
from connecting. See earlier questions and messages on this board that
describe the problem.

The solution I have found is to uninstall the update.

Go first to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-015.mspx
and see the list of Outlook versions. Which one is yours? Mine was Office
2007 (the bottom one in the table). Make a note of the KB number underneath,
in my case KB946983.

Now go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. Look for the updates. If you
cannot see them, you have to check the box at the top to make them visible.

Oh, by the way make sure Outlook is closed at this point.

OK, in Control Panel, find the update with the KB number that is the same as
the one you wrote down. They all start KB94 . . . When you have found it,
click on it once. It will be highlighted and there will be a button on the
right called 'Remove'.

Click 'Remove' and wait.

A box will come up and a progress bar will crawl across, then another. Wait
until that box (which says 'configuring outlook' or something similar) closes
by itself. The update will now have disappeared from the list.

Now re-start Outlook. It worked for me.

Good luck.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Really bad idea and I guess you haven't looked closely enough on this board.
The update is not your issue.

That update has noting to do with send/receive functionality so I doubt that
update is the actual cause of your issue. However, the update does update
the built number of Outlook. If you have a 3rd party firewall tool which
checks built-numbers than you must reconfigure your firewall to allow
Outlook access to the Internet.

 

[francis_e]

Really bad idea and I guess you haven't looked closely enough on this board.
The update is not your issue.

Before the update, my system was working.
After installation, it wasn't.
After uninstalling the update, it worked again.

If you would like to offer constructive advice, I'm all ears. I do run Zone
Alarm, I turned it off and re-started Outlook, no difference.

 

[sharon]

worked for me, thanks francis_e

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I don't run ZoneAlarm for years anymore so I wouldn't know how you need to
reconfigure that. I do know that ZoneAlarm checks if the application that
you set to allow is still the same (based on built number and/or other file
properties) since you set it to allow it.

Turning off ZoneAlarm is not enough to actually disable it. Even
uninstalling it often still leaves you with a messed up system when it comes
to network and Internet connectivity. That's not just my personal home
experience but I've come across it with large role-outs of ZoneAlarm Pro on
laptops as well.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

One thing you might try is starting Windows in Safe Mode with networking
enabled. Then check if you still have send/receive issues.

 

[francis_e]

Thank you

I don't run ZoneAlarm for years anymore so I wouldn't know how you need to
reconfigure that. I do know that ZoneAlarm checks if the application that
you set to allow is still the same (based on built number and/or other file
properties) since you set it to allow it.

Yes, that's quite right. After an update or install, Zone Alarms sends up a
flag saying "New program (or "Changed version of program") is trying to
access the Internet - do you want to allow this?" This quite frequently
happens after an automatic update. Click 'yes' and Zone Alarm remembers the
new version and away you go.

This has been working fine for numerous Office, Explorer and Windows updates
over the last couple of years until today. Now, it could be that all these
other people who have the same problem today also have a firewall problem,
but even if that's so I am not clear why this should only occur on this
update when previous ones were fine. Just looking at this board suggests its
quite a widespread issue - the new messages are still coming in.

 

[stallence]

Before the update I had no problems - after the update no one got any of my
emails at all though I could receive emails. I have removed the update like
you and most of my emails are now going through but I am still having
problems with some that I use options for e.g. making confidential and
requesting a read receipt.
Regards
Fiona

 

[Sbrunelli]

I had the same problem and I agree with someone who wrote it has to do with a
firewall setting. I use Trend Micro PC-cillin. I changed the firewall
settings, I noticed the incoming and outgoing options were
unchecked/unenabled after resetting those it worked normally again. I did
nothing with uninstalling updates

 

[stallence]

Hi Sbrunelli
I use Trend also but what options are you talking about - the firewall
doesn't have incoming and outgoing options - what section did you go into?

 

[Sbrunelli]

Hi stallence
he's what I did
open Trend Micro main screen on the left go to Personal network & firewall
controls tab. pick Personal Firewal settings,enter password. go to "direct
internet connection.double click,go to the Network control tab. I checked the
"outgoing messages(SMTP)
incoming messages(POP3)
then hit add,ok if you use wireless you will want to do that for that
procedure for that one also.
I use wireless but then after that go back to the Personal wirewall screen
and pick and activate "direct internet connection" and it should shoe up as
"current Firewall profile.

I hope this helps everyone

 

[davideg]

Well francis, I'm in the same boat as you. As soon as I uninstalled it,
everything worked perfectly fine. I don't have a third party firewall, only
windows firewall. But I do have a wireless router. I did check out windows
firewall and the setting to allow MS Office was checked off. I also checked
out the router settings and all looked good there as well. So in other
words, it is definitely the Update that is causing the problem, but is
affecting the network of the computer, whether by firewall or other means.
Also, if anyone has any solution as to how to download this update and
install it with out any problems, please let me know. But remember, i don't
have a third party firewall, so it needs to be in a different area, unless
you know what is preventing it in Windows.