I work freelance but use my primary client's Exchange 2003 (SBS 2003 R2) server as my main email. Until recently everything was fine using Outlook 2003 over a VPN, utilising the "RPC over http" function. That was on a Windows XP (SP3) platform.
I recently bought a new latop, running Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit) and Office 2007. Try as I might I cannot connect Outlook 2007 remotely to Exchange 2003. I get either repeated error messages saying Outlook can't connect to the server or (depending on how I configure Outlook), am asked repeatedly for my password to login to the Exchange server.
To try to get it to work, I have:
- Set up and tested a VPN, which is working okay.
- Checked that OWA is still available (it is).
- Added the server's certificate to my laptop's "trusted certificates".
- Added the domain to IE's "trusted sites".
- Ensured Windows firewall has port 443 enabled or SSL connections.
- Followed the same setup process in Outlook 2007 which resulted in the previous configuration in Outlook 2003 working okay.
(Rather than fill this thread with a lengthy explanation, I've followed the process laid out here:
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/outlookrpchttp.html albeit with a different look and feel in Windows 7).
I have also tried the Microsoft solution (a registry hack) set out here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913843/en-us also to no avail.
I have tried using NTLM auth instead of basic, and tried turning off encryption between Outlook and Exchange. I even disabled the firewall temporarily.
This also seems to have been a problem with Vista running Office 2007 as noted here:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/exchangesvrclients/thread/464cc23c-ecae-465a-81cd-ee57f1dcdad1/And what concerns me is that the concluding comment on that thread implies that users who've moved from Office 2003 to 2007 have to revert to web access for out-of-office Exchange email retrieval!!
Surely there's a better way? And I figure if there is, the EE community will devise it. But acknolwedging that many people have already put a lot of thought into this (judging by the threads on it) I'm prepared to give the maximum points I can for a solution.
And to clarify: I have access to the laptop but not the server, and getting any server side changes made may be problematic as there are multiple demarcation lines... but as I said, it was working fine with Outlook 2003 and nothing has changed at that end.
