Exchange / Outlook. Send mail does not appear in send items

[Ronald Postma]

Hi all,
Got the following problem by on of my clients.

They have an SBS2003 server with exchange configured and all seems to work well.

But with one of the remote users there is a broplem, when he connects his machine to the network in the main building there are no problems, but when he is at home (connected with VPN) and he sends mail the mails does not appear in the sent mail container, nore in any other.
The mails are send and arrive. When he opens his webmail he can see all the mail he send in the send items container, but his Outlook where he send the mail from only lists the mail he send from the main building.

First I thought that Outlook does not synchronize with the server.
I took the properties of the send item container and looked in the syncronize tab. and it was synchronized, both server and offline items were the same last syncronization was a few minutes ago.

One other thing, when he presses send and recieve he gets the message that the mail server can not be reached, but he does get his new mail. Could this be a DNS problem or so, that the VPN causes a problem?

Does this situation ring a bell? He wants to see all the send items in his outlookI like to hear from you,

Regards, Ronald

[Jon Finley]

This article may explain why:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/280851/en-us

Jon

[Ronald Postma]

Hey Jon,
Thanx for the reply, but I think this article does not apply to my situation.
He only opens and sends mail when he is connected with a VPN tot the main building and works constantly online.

If you have any more ideas, they are very welcome, so are the ideas of all of the other users,

Regards, Ronald

[Jon Finley]

I'm assumming that this is a laptop.

Is he dialing in, or using a DSL or cable modem?

Is he doing any additional port blocking at home?

It sounds more like the VPN is blocking/dropping something on the reply from the mail server, but I'll keep looking.

Is this Outlook 2003 or XP?

Jon

[Ronald Postma]

Hi John,
He is using DSL, I also tested it with firewall disabled. He is using outlook 2003.
Tnx for your time I really appriciate it,

Regards, Ronald

[Jon Finley]

Unless Outlook was configued differently, by default, Cached Exchange Mode is turned on (checked). Try turning off Cached Exchange Mode, and see if the behavior changes.

Jon

[Jon Finley]

If he is getting DNS assigned by the ISP, he might try adding in one of the "office" dns servers manually to the list.

This "may" be caused by ISP port blocking or smtp forwarding being blocked.

Is the connection to the server POP, imap or native exchange server mode?

Jon

[Ronald Postma]

Hi Jon,
Idoubted that the problem was caused by the VPN, so I let him go to the main office again and let it test again and now the mails he send from there also do not appear in ssent items, so the VPN part does not apply anymore.

Now the issue is that send mail is not listed in sent items on his outlook, no matter wer e ie is logged in.

Could be something with cahing, but what does the Exchange cashing do? I thougt hthat it makes a copy of the exchange box and loads it if it can not connect to the server.

I have a look arround to see if if there is an otion that will prohibit the send items to be shown, some setting must have been changed.

Regards, Ronald

[Jon Finley]

Great.......

Just to eliminate the obvious, have him run scanpst (looking for pst corruption). The tool can be found under:
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033\SCANPST.EXE"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287497/en-us

He can also run a compact (and repair):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289987/en-us

Is he up-to-date on all Office related updates/patches?

----------------------------------
About "Cached Exchange mode" from Outlook help:
"This feature requires you to be using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account in Cached Exchange Mode.

Cached Exchange Mode provides you with a better experience when you use a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account. A copy of your mailbox is stored on your computer. This copy provides quick access to your data and is frequently updated with the mail server.

If you work offline, whether by choice or due to a connection problem, your data is still available to you instantly wherever you are. If a connection from your computer to the computer running Exchange server isn't available, Outlook switches to Trying to connect or Disconnected. If the connection is restored, Microsoft Outlook automatically switches back to Connected or Connected (Headers). Any changes you make while a connection to the server isn't available are synchronized automatically when a connection is available. You can continue to work while changes are synchronized."

Jon

[Jon Finley]

Hmmm.. I didn't answer ALL of your caching question... I have seen the caching feature delay/stop the automatic send/receiving of email even though the system was directly connected to a working network port. The individual had to press F9 to force the send/receive. The behavior changed back to immediate when "caching" was unchecked.

Jon

[Ronald Postma]

Hi again,
Just to clearify, they use a Exchange server not pop3.

Why is is nesseary to scan the pst file ehen I use exchange?

I think the quickest solution at the moment is to uninstall outlook and its settings and reinstall it and let it sychronize again.
Cashing is very helpfull, so I rather let it enabled, but I try it with disabling it. Now I just hope I can find a way to reinstall it there, no people on site there. Problem for tomorrow,

I do not think he is up to date BTW

Regards, Ronald

[Jon Finley]

FYI - PST and OST files are involved with caching and off-line use with Outlook.

The most common use in an Exchange environment is with archiving, and personal folders.

Jon

[Ronald Postma]

Hey Jon,
Can that program scan OST files as well? He does not have a PST file, he does not use archiving.
Thank you for your time, I assign the rest of the points as soon as I tested some options,

Regards, Ronald

[Jon Finley]

Same article from the prior listing
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287497/en-us

Use Scanost.exe to scan the OST files.

Jon

[Jon Finley]

BTW...

I would back up his OST and/or PST files, then delete his outlook profile and create a new one.

Copy the OST/PST files back to the original location, let him log back on to outlook and see if the problem goes away.

Jon

[Rob van Herel]

Hi Ronald,

I wonder if you find a solution for your problem. We have the same problem. VPN user with laptop, send items appear not in "send items". The problem also seems to appear when the specific user uses exchange as client on the terminal server.

I hope to hear from you.

Greetings,
Rob (NL)