Member Avatar for gpalau

Hello;

Recently I restored a server from a crash, running Windows 2003 Small Business. Most of my computers are working fine on the network, but 3 of them are being a pain in the ass.

Their common problem is that their outlook 2003 sporadically disconnects from the exchange server. I have checked the server and its ok, so I believe this might be an outlook problem but i dont quite know where to even start.

Once i reboot the machines, they can connect fine... this wasnt happening before...

Any pointers?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Evisscerator

Dani AI

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Short, practical checklist to try before assuming a server-side Exchange fault. Key clues from : only a few clients affected, a server restore happened, and a local reboot fixes each machine temporarily. Several replies already raised logs, network and antivirus as possibilities; the steps below add focused tests that haven’t been spelled out in this thread.

  • Verify time and name resolution first. A restored server with the wrong system clock or stale DNS/host records will cause intermittent authentication failures long before you see consistent errors. Correct clock skew and confirm clients resolve the Exchange server to the expected IP.

  • Rebuild the Outlook client state (profile/OST) safely. Back up any PST/OST first, then close Outlook and force a rebuild of the offline file. Example steps:

    Close Outlook.
Rename <username>.ost to <username>.ost.old
Restart Outlook (a new .ost will be created).

    This separates profile/OST corruption from server problems.

  • Isolate add-ins and AV MAPI integration. Start Outlook in safe mode to see if the disconnects stop:

    outlook.exe /safe

    If stable in safe mode, disable third‑party Outlook add-ins and any antivirus mail plugins for testing.

  • If the affected machines are laptops, test with a wired connection and update wireless/NIC drivers and power settings (disable aggressive power save options). Wireless dropouts and NIC driver quirks are common with intermittent RPC sessions.

  • Collect evidence: enable Outlook logging and take a short packet capture (Wireshark) when a disconnect happens. Look for TCP resets, repeated retransmits, or authentication errors. Correlate timestamps with any server-side activity.

Run the steps in order: safe mode → new profile/OST → wired test → capture logs. Keep copies of logs and exact timestamps and error text when posting back. These suggestions complement the earlier points from , , , and and will help narrow whether the issue is client, network, or server side.

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Member Avatar for ideaworks

Hello;

Recently I restored a server from a crash, running Windows 2003 Small Business. Most of my computers are working fine on the network, but 3 of them are being a pain in the ass.

Their common problem is that their outlook 2003 sporadically disconnects from the exchange server. I have checked the server and its ok, so I believe this might be an outlook problem but i dont quite know where to even start.

Once i reboot the machines, they can connect fine... this wasnt happening before...

Any pointers?

GPalau, Have you received an answer to this problem?> I have the exact same thing happening on my network. 2 users have their Outlook 2003 disconnect sporatically. SOmetimes, simply reconnecting works, other times when I try to reconnect it asks me for their password and then connects other times I have to completely reboot. I have updated Outlook hoping that would solve the issue but it has not. Some are on XP pro SP2 some on SP1. Can anyone help?

Danny

Member Avatar for petesader

Hi,

Did you ever find a solution to this problem? I am having the same problem. Thnaks.


Pete

Member Avatar for DaveB

Hi Guys

Best thing to do is to have a look in event viewer for any problems, and it should be easy to find a solution from there.

You can launch event viewer through "Admin Tools" on the Start menu (if configured) or via Start > Run > Type "eventvwr.msc"

Double Click on the Application Log to look for errors.

Either copy the event body text and Event ID of anything relevant into this post for us to look into, or check out the MS Link in the error, or google the Event ID.

Regards, Dave

Member Avatar for PhilP

Hi Guys

Best thing to do is to have a look in event viewer for any problems, and it should be easy to find a solution from there.

You can launch event viewer through "Admin Tools" on the Start menu (if configured) or via Start > Run > Type "eventvwr.msc"

Double Click on the Application Log to look for errors.

Either copy the event body text and Event ID of anything relevant into this post for us to look into, or check out the MS Link in the error, or google the Event ID.

Regards, Dave

We are seeing the same but the email server is 2003, it's only happening to laptops, only at this site, and the server is cenralized at this location.
People are being disconnected for almost a whole day then it moves on and the next day someone else may have the problem.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Member Avatar for ssetlhako

Mine did the same, only to realize that my exchange server was attacked by a virus. So try to scan for viruses in both the server and the affected pcs

Member Avatar for DimaYasny

looks like a networking problem.
I'd try to ping the server constantly (ping -t) and see if while outlook disconnects, so does the network, or the pings become too slow. that can be solved by "netsh winsock reset".
otherwise a sloution might be to backup the user's profile, get the pc out of the domain, and rejoin the domain

Member Avatar for Evisscerator

Take a hard look at TASK OFFLOADING by visiting .....

This fixed my issue with it.

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