BleepingComputer.com: outlook is not online in exchange server

I am new to Exchange Server 2003 and I have a friend with a network server that I don't know how to re-establish a user to the network. I moved one of his non used computers to this station and now when I try to log in the user I get the error that the name can't be verified because Outlook is not connected or online. This computer used to be online with a different user. Can anyone tell me the steps to check this? Thanks.

You may want to post in this forum. this sounds like a server issue more than a networking issue.

I'm confused. You say when you try to log on you get an error about Outlook?
Which large parts of this story did you miss out? Can you walk us through this a bit more from the begining?

I went to Outlook and went to email accounts and put in the new name that was already on the server from another pc. When I tried to verify the name I got this message: "Name could not be resolved. The connection to Microsoft Server is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action."
The computer shows to be online to the internet...

Sounds like a networking problem, possibly DNS name resolution is failing.

Try this:
open a command prompt
type

ping <MailServerName>

where MailServerName is the name of the Exchange server hosting that users' mailbox

Does it resolve the name to an IP? Does it then get any replies?

I did the ping and got 4 sent and 4 received.....still could not resolve the name. When I first open Outlook, I get this message:"The connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action". Then it goes to the user name check.

I'm going to have to go with AdamV on this, there is a something we are missing.

BTW...DNS does not resolve the name of an account on a server. So I have no idea why anyone would think this is a DNS issue.

@CaveDweller2 - Because if it can't resolve the exchange server to an ip, then it can't connect, so it would give the same error message as if outlook was not online - "online" in this context means "can connect to your exchange server".

AD stores the mailbox server name for the user account, but after that it has to be a reachable server.

(I wasn't talking about resolving an account name, only the OP was confused about that)

@geno368
Is the user account active in AD (not disabled)? Does the user account have a valid entry for the mailbox server? (exchange general tab in ADUC)

Far less likely, but not to be ruled out yet, is the user allowed to connect through Outlook, or were they set up for OWA only perhaps? Check in ADUC under Exchange features to make sure that the IMAP protocol is enabled for that user.

OK then what did he ping? because you said to ping the name and see if it resolves the IP. did he ping the IP? wouldn't he have to type ping -a <MailServerIP> to get the name?

I still say this is a Server software issue and not a network issue and he is posting in the wrong section for a software issue. But it doesn't matter if you can help him then great.

This post has been edited by CaveDweller2: 09 November 2009 - 07:34 PM

I appreciate the help from both of you. I also posted this in the forum you suggested, but have no replies. This is what I pinged: "ping CSRSERV.csr.local" Was that what you meant? Also, please advise definitions for AD...(active directory?) ADUC (active directory user control?) Please tell me where to go to check those settings...BTW, this is an XP Prof system running server 2003

ADUC = Active Directory Users and Computers, the usual MMC (Microsoft Management Console) interface for managing and editing users, groups etc in Active Directory. In there you can check the properties of a user account to see if there is anything odd going on.

I went to ADUC and saw nothing out of the ordinary...the mailbox is still there....Question: Is the computer's IP addy important to the outlook being online? She had no problem on her old computer...