MS Exchange Server 5.5 & Outlook 98 FAQ

Version .009 April 19, 1999

Tony Willingham, MCP

tony@willingham.net

www.willingham.net

 

 

This is an ongoing project and will change frequently.

Most of these are questions that I’ve had since I started working with Exchange although some are from the public news groups.

More info about Exchange Server can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/support/exchange
This FAQ is not maintained, supported, or affiliated in any other way with Microsoft® or it’s support staff.  Please DO NOT bother the support staff at Microsoft with email messages, telephone calls, or any other type of media regarding the contents of this FAQ.

 

Contents:

1.       Does each Exchange Server user need a Windows NT domain account?

2.       Do I have to buy a Windows NT user license for every Exchange Server license since each Exchange Server mailbox requires an NT domain account?

3.       How do I set up a catchall mailbox, also known as a Postmaster?

4.       How can I monitor other people’s mail? (For Administrative purposes only of course)

5.       How can I set up multiple profiles in Outlook 98 without requiring each user to log in and out of windows?

6.       How do I give a user multiple e-mail addresses?

7.       How do I enable mail forwarding?

8.       Do I need to use POP3 (Internet E-mail Service) to access Exchange Server from a remote client using Outlook 98?

9.       How does the Exchange Server service in Outlook 98 find the Exchange Server over the Internet when using Dial-up Networking?

10.   How many users can a single Exchange Server support?

11.   How can I hide the Global Address List or Recipient container from the Address Book?

12.   How do I move a mailbox from one container to another?

13.   How do I hide an individual mailbox from the Address Book?

14.   What’s up with all these folders?  The difference between Personal Folders and Mailboxes.

15.    A possible solution to a common OWA error:

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01a8'

Object required: 'Application(...)'
/exchange/USA/logon.asp, line 12

16.   How do I properly back up the Exchange Server database files?

17.   How do set restrictions on which users can create public folders on the All Public Folders root?

18.   How do I set up Exchange Server (POP3/SMTP) to work with Proxy Server 2.0?

19.   How can I quickly find the number of mailboxes on my Exchange Server?

20.   How can I print a list of Exchange users and their e-mail addresses?

21.   What is the Organizational Forms Library and how do I create it?

22.   How do I delete forms from the Organizational Forms Library?

23.   I have a Personal Folder in Outlook that does not show up under services but shows up in my Folder Tree view.  How can I delete this stubborn personal folder?

24.   How Do I Display Visual Basic Help for Outlook?

25.   How do I manage resource scheduling like rooms and equipment using Exchange/Outlook?

26.     When my users try to open an Outlook form that I’ve published to the Organization Forms Library, they get a  “The form you selected could not be displayed” error.  How do I correct that problem?

27.     The Internet E-mail service does not show up in Outlook even though I have that service configured or Err Msg : "Internet Mail Not Registered".

28.   When adding another Exchange Server to my site I get the following error: “The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion 0xc002041d.”

29. If I'm on the Internet, how do I connect to an Exchange Server that is behind Microsoft Proxy Server using Outlook or the Exchange Client?


 

 

 

Q & A:

1.      Does each Exchange Server user need a Windows NT domain account?

 

Yes, Exchange uses NT Authentication to login users so every Exchange user must have an NT domain account.  Of course this means that you also need at least one Windows NT Domain.  Although, access to public Exchange folders can be seen anonymously through the Exchange Outlook Web client.

 

2.      Do I have to buy a Windows NT user license for every Exchange Server license since each Exchange Server user requires an NT domain account?

 

No, you do not need to buy additional NT licenses for each Exchange user license you have.  Microsoft does not consider Exchange users to be using Windows NT’s “basic networking services”.  If the Exchange user simply checks e-mail and performs other Exchange functions, then all he needs is the Exchange license.

For some stimulating reading on Microsoft Licensing, surf on over to http://www.microsoft.com/licenses/licguide/contents/default.htm,

http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/guide/licensing_with%20more%20resources.asp, and http://www.microsoft.com/products/prodref/599_ov.htm for pricing.

 

3.      How do I set up a catchall mailbox, also known as a Postmaster?      

It’s often helpful to have a catchall account that keeps a copy of all undeliverable e-mail sent to your Exchange Server.  This could be e-mail that has a misspelled or nonexistent user name.

To create a catchall account, first create the domain account for the Postmaster (catchall), unless you want to use an existing account.

 

 

Then within the Exchange Administrator go to the Internet Mail Service, which will be under [Site] è Configuration è Connections è Internet Mail Service.  Change the Administrator’s Mailbox to your Postmaster user and set the Notifications.  Finally create a mail service from within Outlook to check the Postmaster’s mail. See Figure 1.

 

 

 



(Figure 1) Setting up a Postmaster in Exchange

 

 

4.      How can I monitor other people’s mail? (For Administrative purposes)

 

There are several ways to open other people’s mailboxes. The simplest way is to give yourself Service Account Admin privileges at both the Organization level and the Site level.  This level of access will transform you into Exchange God and allow you to do almost anything.  After you do this, open a folder (Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, etc.) in someone’s mailbox with the following: from within Outlook go to File -> Open -> Other User’s Folder and select the user and folder you want to open.

If you want to open a user’s Deleted Items, Sent Items, or any other folder not listed in the previous examples drop down box, you will have to set up a profile for that user and open Outlook using his profile. You won’t have to use his user name or password because you are already the Site Service Admin.  This will let you open all the folders for that user.  I use a generic profile called “Resources” that I change to point at whichever user I want to investigate.

Another way to monitor e-mail is to set up Journaling.  This isn’t as convenient because you have to wade through gobs of e-mail to find the user you want. You’ll need Service Pack 1 for Exchange 5.5 in order to enable Journaling. Message Journaling sends a copy of every message (minus some system messages) to any mailbox that the administrator specifies.  I don’t recommend using your own account because it will soon be swamped with other people’s mail, unless you’re in a very small organization.  For some reason Microsoft didn’t automate the MJ setup.  Perhaps they didn’t want to make it too easy for you to read other people’s mail.

You’re going to have to go into the registry on your Exchange Server and make the necessary changes.

 

From the Exchange SP1 documentation:

Enabling Message Journaling

To enable message journaling throughout a Microsoft Exchange Server site or organization, each server must be running Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 1 and each server must be configured for message journaling.

You can configure message journaling at the server level, site level, or organization level. If you configure it at the site level, a message that is sent between two sites in the organization is saved twice: once at the sending site and once at the receiving site.

You enable and configure message journaling using Windows NT Server registry settings. Complete the following steps on each server. Each step is described in detail later in this document.

  1. Specify where messages are saved.
  2. Specify message journaling at the server, site, or organization level.
  3. Route all Internet Mail Service messages through the private information store.
  4. Route local messages through the message transfer agent (MTA).

 

Specifying Where Messages are Saved

Specify where messages are saved by adding a registry key with the distinguished name of a mailbox, public folder, or custom recipient.

 

To view the distinguished name of a recipient

 

  1. Run the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program in raw mode by typing C:\Exchsrvr\Bin\Admin /r at a command prompt.
  2. Select the recipient object in the appropriate Recipients container.
  3. From the File menu, choose Raw Properties.
  4. In the Objects attributes box, select Obj-Dist-Name. The distinguished name of the object is displayed in the Edit value box.

 

To specify the recipient

  1. Open the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
MSExchangeMTA\Parameters

2.      Add a new string value named Journal Recipient Name.

3.        Set the value of Journal Recipient Name to the distinguished name of the mailbox, public folder, or custom recipient.

 

Specifying Message Journaling at the Server, Site, or Organization Level

You can specify if message journaling is done at the server level, site level, or organization level. By default, message journaling is done at the organization level.

1.      Open the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
MSExchangeMTA\Parameters

  1. Add a new DWORD value named Per-Site Journal Required.
  2. For journaling at the server level, set the value of Per-Site Journal Required to 2. For journaling at the site level, set the value of Per-Site Journal Required to 1.

To return to organization level message journaling, set the value of Per-Site Journal Required to 0.

 

Routing Internet Mail Service Messages Through the Private Information Store

To be copied correctly, all Internet Mail Service messages must be routed through the private information store.

  1. Open the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
MSExchangeIMC\Parameters

4.      Add a new DWORD value named RerouteViaStore.

5.      Set the value of RerouteViaStore to 1.

Routing Local Messages Through the MTA

To be copied correctly, local messages must be routed through the message transfer agent (MTA) instead of being delivered directly by the private information store.

10.  Open the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem

6.      Add a new DWORD value named No Local Delivery.

7.      Set the value of No Local Delivery to 1.

 

 

 

 

5.      How can I set up multiple profiles in Outlook 98 without requiring each user to log in and out of windows to access their Outlook profile?

 

By default, each profile you create for Outlook (done in the mailbox applet within Control Panel) is set to use NT Password Authentication.  This means that each user has to re-logon to windows in order to gain access to his Outlook profile.  This is time consuming and inconvenient.  To have Outlook prompt each user for his user name and password every time Outlook starts you need to change a couple of settings.  This first thing you want to do is have Outlook ask which profile to use at startup.  In Outlook go to Tools à Options à Mail Services and click “Prompt for a profile to be used”.  Select OK and restart Outlook for changes to take effect.

Figure 2. Changing Outlook’s Authentication

 

If this was all you did, Outlook would expect which ever profile was selected to be the same person that is currently logged into windows.  What we want is for Outlook to prompt that profile for a user name and password.  To enable this, go to Tools à Services and get the properties of the “Microsoft Exchange Server” service.  Then go to the Advanced tab and select “None” in the “Logon network security:” combo box   (Figure 2).

When you restart Outlook, it should ask for the profile to use and then the user name, domain, and password for that profile.

 

 

6.      How do I give a user multiple e-mail addresses?

From within the Exchange Server Administrator double click on the user to bring up his properties.  Then go to the “E-mail Addresses” tab.  From here you can edit, add, or delete additional addresses for that user.  Typically you will be adding Internet Addresses.  That user’s mailbox will then receive e-mail sent to any of those addresses.

 

 

7.      How do I enable mail forwarding?

 

Mail forwarding is the ability to receive e-mail at one address, tony@abc.com, and forward it to another address, willingham@def.edu.

To set this up first create a new custom recipient with the address being the external Internet address. Use the person’s Internet address that the mail will be forwarded to for this. Then create the exchange mailbox if it is not already created. In the exchange mailbox you can select the delivery options tab. At the bottom of this window, you can select the custom recipient mailbox and then check the box to send to both the alternate address and the exchange address. This will send to both the recipients. If you don't want the duplicate name in the global address list, you can go into the advanced tab on the custom recipient mailbox and choose not to include it in the global address list.  This technique uses up a mailbox license.

 

 

8.      Do I need to use POP3 (Internet E-mail Service) to access Exchange Server from a remote client-using Outlook 98?

 

No, Outlook98 can communicate with the Exchange Server over the Internet via TCP/IP using remote procedure calls.  For those of us that have used the old ways (POP3 & SMTP) this may seem a little strange.  I was a bit baffled by this at first because I was accustomed to mail clients using POP3 or IMAP and SMTP in order to send and receive e-mail. 

 

Outlook98 uses the “Microsoft Exchange Server:” entry under the Exchange Server service to find your Exchange Server if you are trying to install the Exchange Server service remotely via the Internet.  So the only service you need is the Exchange service.  If you try to set up the POP3 service to check the same mailbox at the same time, you will get strange results and often duplicate e-mail messages. 

 

Your Exchange Server will need an entry in the controlling Domain Server for your site for this to work remotely.  In other words your mail server will need to be resolvable from the Internet.  For example, if your domain is xyz.com and your Exchange server is mail1, then you you would put mail1.xyz.com in the “Microsoft Exchange Server:” field under Exchange service properties window.

 

By using RPCs, Exchange and Outlook can make use of all the same information that you normally have while connected via the LAN.  This includes the Global Address Book, Public Folders, Forms, and of course your Mailbox folders.

 

 

9.      How does the Exchange Server service in Outlook 98 find the Exchange Server over the Internet when using Dial-up Networking?

 

Outlook98 uses remote procedure calls and DNS.  See previous question.

 

 

10.  How many users can a single Exchange Server support?

 

According to Microsoft Exchange tech support and various other sources, a single Exchange Server can handle 300 to 500 users, depending on hardware.  I assume this accounts for the users taking full advantage of all that Exchange Server has to offer and not just e-mail.  The Microsoft support engineer I spoke with said that General Electric was the largest Exchange organization he knew of, having several hundred thousand users.  With 300,000 users at 500 users per server, you’re looking at a minimum of 600 Exchange Servers!  Tony Redmond claims that Digital as the largest Exchange Server infrastructure.  I have found that these estimates are a bit on the conservative side.  I personally use two Compaq Prolient servers, one with 900 users and the other with 700.
According to a TechNet article produced by Compaq, "Deployment and Configuration Guide: MS Exchange Server on Compaq Prolient Servers", a high-end multi-processor Prolient server can support 10,000+ users.  The problem with having this many users on a single server is that the Information Store becomes too large and unwieldy.  There comes a time when the back-ups takes too long and there are too many users dependent on a single server.  If a server failed, it would be much better to have 2000 users screaming for their e-mail than 10,000.

 

 

 

11.  How can I hide the Global Address List or Recipient containers from the Address Book?

           

From MS Article ID: Q188643

When you create the Custom Views using Address Book Views and Search permissions, the clients will only be able to view the containers that they have permissions to view (as described in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article, Q182902, "XADM: How To Setup Container Level Search Control"). Although it is not possible to hide the words, "Global Address List," it is possible to alter or limit what the clients see in the Global Address List when they connect to the Exchange Server computer. The Global Address List will contain all recipients listed in the containers in which the user has permissions to view.

 

 

12.  How do I move a mailbox from one container to another?

 

There is no built-in utility to move a user from one recipient container to another. To move a user from one recipient container to another:

1.   Make sure the user has all his or her mail in a local .pst file. Also make sure that if the user uses Schedule+ he or she also has a local Schedule+ file.

2.   Delete the user and then re-create the user in the recipient container that you want the user to be in.

 

An alternative way to move a user from one recipient container to another:

1.   Export the user into a .csv file and then delete the user.

2.      Import the user into the proper container.

 

 

13.  How do I hide an individual mailbox from the Address Book?

 

From within the Exchange Server Administrator double click on the user’s mailbox to bring up its properties.  Then go to the “Advanced” tab.  Check, “Hide from address book”.

 

14.  What’s up with all these folders in Outlook 98?  The difference between Personal Folders and mailboxes folders.

 

The mailbox folders are a direct reflection of the users’ mailbox on the Exchange Server.  You must be connected to the Exchange server, either through your local network or DUN, to have access to the mailbox folders.  Any change made in the mailbox folder is immediately made on the Exchange server and vice-versa because that is where the change is essentially taking place.  The personal folders are stored on the user’s machine and are independent of the server.  Personal folders are especially beneficial for laptop users because they can access the personal folders without being connected to the Exchange server.

 

 15. A possible solution to a common OWA error:

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01a8'

Object required: ‘Application (...)'
/exchange/USA/logon.asp, line 12

 

This problem may still occur even after applying SP1 to Exchange 5.5.

This solution assumes you have installed SP1.  There are two files that do not seem to be registering properly, the two files that appear to deal with web outlook access are cdo.dll and cdohtml.dll.   The versions you need are as follows:

 

            cdo.dll version 5.5.2232.0

            cdohtml.dll 5.5.2232.5

 

To fix the error, try the following:

      i.        Stop IIS4 admin service (this also stops w3svc)

     ii.        Stop exchange system attendant (this should stop all exchange-related services)

   iii.        Make sure nobody has the web Outlook page loaded in a browser

   iv.        Make sure regedit isn't open

    v.        From dos or run menu:  regsvr32 -u cdo.dll

   vi.        You should get a dialog indicating success.

 vii.        Then from dos or run menu:  regsvr32 cdo.dll

viii.        You should get a dialog indicating success

   ix.        Do the above two steps for cdohtml.dll

    x.        (You may need to supply full path for either of these files for regsvr32 to work)

   xi.        Reboot computer

 

If you install Outlook 8.03 on a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 computer, Outlook Web Access does not perform as expected. To solve this problem, run Regsvr32a.exe after installing Outlook. This utility resets the affected registry settings by re-registering Cdo.dll. You can download Regsvr32a.exe from the Microsoft Web site at:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/downloads/dp2439.asp.

Run Regsvr32.exe from the command line using the full path to Cdo.dll as the argument. For example, the following command changes the registry settings by re-registering Cdo.dll

regsvr32.exe systemroot\system32\cdo.dll

where systemroot is your Windows NT directory.

 

For more information and other trouble shooting procedures, see these Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles:

Q178280;
“Troubleshooting Guide for Outlook Web Access”;

 

16.  How do I properly back up the Exchange Server database files?

 

This is one of the more complicated issues when using Exchange in the Enterprise.  There are several routes to take and lots of information that you need to know in order to back-up and restore an Exchange Server properly.  This is also a favorite topic on the Exchange MCSE tests.

Microsoft has a brief knowledge base article on this topic: Q146306 “XADM: Exchange Server Backup & Restore Procedures

 

17.  How do set restrictions on which users can create public folders on the All Public Folders root?

 

From the Exchange Administrator, go to Configuration à Information Store Site Configuration and get the properties.  Then go to the “Top Level Folder Creation” tab.

 

 

18.    How do I set up Exchange Server (POP3/SMTP) to work with Proxy Server 2.0?

This can be a hairy process, especially if you want Outlook to communicate with the Exchange Server through the Proxy Server using Remote Procedure Calls.

There is a good Knowledge Base article from Microsoft on how to supposedly do this:

Q181420

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q181/4/20.asp

 

Another great source for Proxy Server 2.0 (including hooking it to Exchange) is the Proxy Server FAQ at http://proxyfaq.networkgods.com

 

 

19.    How can I quickly find the number of mailboxes in my Exchange Server?

 

From the Exchange Administrator, select the Server that contains the mailboxes you wish to count and expend its properties.  At the bottom of that server’s sub-list you will see Server Recipients.  If you select Server Recipients, all the mailboxes on that server will be displayed in the right hand window and the total number of mailboxes is displayed in the bottom left corner of the Exchange Administrator.  You can then generate a quick report of all the mailboxes, along with their e-mail addresses by clicking File, Save Window Contents.

 

 

20.    How can I print a list of Exchange users and their e-mail addresses?

 

See previous question: How can I quickly find the number of mailboxes in my Exchange Server?

 

21.  What is the Organizational Forms Library and how do I create it?

 

The Organizational Forms Library is used to store forms for public use, meaning anyone in your organization can have access to them.  It is actually a public folder that is stored on an Exchange Server and it can be replicated to multiple Exchange servers in the same way any other public folder can.  Forms stored in the organization forms library are usually Send forms.  To create an Organization forms library while in the Exchange Administrator:

      i.        Choose Tools à Forms Administrator.  The Organization Forms Library Administrator dialog box will appear. 

    ii.        Click New.  The Create New Forms Library dialog box will appear.

  iii.        Give it a name and choose the appropriate language.

    iv.        Set the permissions (making yourself the Owner).

      v.        Click Close.

 

22.  How do I delete forms from the Organizational Forms Library?

 

If you have the correct permissions, you can manage Outlook forms stored on your Exchange server via the Outlook client.  To try this, go to Tools à Options à Other à Advanced Options à Custom Forms à Manage Forms.  This is the most buried feature I use in Outlook.  You can also delete all the forms by deleting the entire Organizational Forms Library, which of course deletes all the forms in it.

 

23.  I have a Personal Folder in Outlook that does not show up under services but shows up in my Folder Tree view.  How can I delete this stubborn personal folder?

 

The registry sometimes retains a pointer to a personal folder file even if you’ve deleted it.

Try this to correct the problem:

      i.        Make sure you only have one Personal Folder service listed here: Tools menu à Services. Remove any extras.

     ii.        Right-click on the root of the extra set of Personal Folders and choose "Disconnect"

   iii.        Go into your registry at this point:

   iv.        (For Win 95) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Messaging> Subsystem\Profiles\<your profile name
(For Win NT) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\<your profile name>

    v.        Look in the tree under that point (it should be full of keys with long hexidecimal value names) and look for a section that references the PST file you want off of your folder tree. Export that section (for safety) and then delete the entire key.

 

24.  How Do I Display Visual Basic Help for Outlook?

 

Visual Basic Help for Outlook isn't installed during setup; instead, you must copy the files Vbaoutl.hlp and Vbaoutl.cnt from the ValuPack folder to the folder in which you've installed Outlook. For more information about installing and using Visual Basic Help for Outlook, see "Getting Help for Visual Basic in Microsoft Outlook" in Outlook Help.

To see the table of contents and index for Visual Basic Help for Outlook, you must display the Script Editor window while an Outlook item is open in design mode. To design an Outlook item, open any item except a note, and then click Design Outlook Form on the Tools menu. In design mode, click View Code on the Form menu to display the Script Editor. In the Script Editor, click Microsoft Outlook Object Library Help on the Help menu. The Help Topics dialog box should appear, displaying the table contents and index for Visual Basic Help for Outlook.

 

25.  How do I manage resource scheduling like rooms and equipment?

 

Check out article Q169872 for detailed info on how to do this.

 

26.  When my users try to open an Outlook form that I’ve published to the Organization Forms Library, they get a  “The form you selected could not be displayed” error.  How do I correct that problem?

 

There are several bizarre errors you may receive when you try to open an Outlook form that has been published to the Organization Forms Library.  There are a few steps you can take to resolve the problem:

1.       The first step that Microsoft Tech support will suggest is to clear out your forms directory:  Exit Outlook and go to your c:\windows\forms directory and delete everything except the “Configs” folder.  Then restart Outlook and try to load the form.

2.       If your users are running Office97, reinstall it and select the “Exchange Server Support” option, this solution typically works for me.

3.      As a last resort completely uninstall Outlook and Office97 and run the Eraser97 utility.  Eraser97 will search and remove every reference to Office97 found in the registry.  You can find Eraser97 on Microsoft’s ftp site at ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES  Then reinstall Office97/Outlook98.

27. The Internet E-mail service does not show up in Outlook even though I have that service configured or Err Msg : "Internet Mail Not Registered".


                If the Internet E-mail service does not appear under Tools -> Options -> Mail Services -> “Check for new mail on”, then you may have a DLL (Outlmime.dll) that is not registered properly.  You can check out article Q191423 for more info.

 

 Windows 95/98

-----------------------

These steps assume that you installed Outlook in the Microsoft Office 97

default installation path.

To resolve this error message, follow these steps:

1. Quit Outlook and any other programs that are currently running. Click

   the Start button, point to Programs and click MS-DOS Prompt.

2. In the MS-DOS Prompt window, type (include quotation marks):

      cd "\program files\microsoft office\office"

   and press ENTER.

3. In the MS-DOS Prompt window, type:

      c:\windows\system\regsvr32 outlmime.dll

   and press ENTER.

   You will receive the following message:

      DllRegisterServer in outlmime.dll succeeded.

   Click OK and click the Close button to close the MS-DOS prompt

   window.

   NOTE: See the More Information section if you have problems with

   this step.

4. Start Outlook and send a mail message to test your mail functionality.

 

Microsoft Windows NT 4.0

----------------------------------

1. Quit Outlook and any other programs that are currently running. Click

   the Start button, point to Programs and click Command Prompt.

2. In the Command Prompt window, type:

      cd\program files\microsoft office\office

3. In the Command Prompt window, type(include quotation marks):

     c:\winnt\system32\regsvr32 outlmime.dll

   You will receive the following message:

      DllRegisterServer in outlmime.dll succeeded.

   Click OK and click the Close button to close the Command Prompt

   window.

4.       Start Outlook and send a mail message to test your mail functionality.

 

28. When installing Exchange Server I get the following error: “The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion 0xc002041d.”

 

I ran across this strange error while adding another Exchange Server to my existing site.

The problem was that the new server had an incorrect subnet mask, which prevented it from communicating with the other Exchange Server.  As a result the directory replication was unable to function correctly and the Directory Service failed to start.

There are a couple of Knowledge base articles on this topic:

·         Q159485

·         Q159288

 

29. If I'm on the Internet, how do I connect to an Exchange Server that is behind Microsoft Proxy Server using Outlook or the Exchange Client?

 

I've seen this question asked time and again on the newsgroups but rarely have I seen an adequate answer.  Most of the time people will tell you how to access Exchange Server's POP3/SMTP services using a standard e-mail client.  This is a simple matter of opening up a few ports on your Proxy Server and adding the Proxy Client to your internal Exchange Server.  There is an excellent knowledge base article on setting up POP3/SMTP to behave in this fashion: Q181420, 'How to Configure Exchange or Other SMTP with Proxy Server'.
This may be an acceptable solution for most people but I like to use Outlook from home so I can make use of Outlook's advanced features such as the address book, contacts, To Do list, etc.  Exchange Server and Outlook swap information by using Remote Procedure Calls (RPC).  There is no direct way to force MS Proxy Server to relay this information from an outside Outlook client to an internal Exchange Server and vice-versa.  The answer lies in establishing a Virtual Private Network (VPN) between your remote computer and your internal corporate network.  You can use Microsoft's Point to Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) to accomplish this and its fairly easy to set up, see Figure 1.  You will have to configure both your NT4 server and your Win95/95/NT client to make use of PPTP.  On the server side you first add PPTP on your multihomed proxy server by going to Control Panel -> Network -> Protocols -> Add and select Point to Point Tunneling Protocol.  When you add PPTP it will ask for the number of VPNs to create (typically one for each user that needs to connect to Exchange via the Internet).  It will also automatically install RAS on that server.  Once RAS as been installed you will have to create the VPN port by clicking on 'Add' from within RAS setup and assigning it one of the VPNs.  Next click on 'Network' and set the protocol to TCP and check the 'Require Microsoft encrypted Authentication' and 'Require Data Encryption'.  This will allow for a secure connection between Exchange and Outlook. Finally click on TCP configuration and select the way you wish to assign an IP address to the user logging in.  The user will actually be assigned one of your internal IP addresses.  I typically assign the address statically, for example 10.10.0.1 to 10.10.0.254. One final step is to give the user dial-in rights from within the RAS Administrator.

Next you have to set up the client side.  If your using Windows98/NT then all the software you need is already included.  If your using Windows95 then you will need to upgrade your DUN (Dial-Up Networking) to version 1.3.  You can download this from http://www.download.com or several other download sites on the Internet. You need to go to the Network applet in Control Panel and add the VPN adapter.  This will work on top of your current dial-up adapter.  Think of it as a dial-up connection within a dial-up connection.  You will need to tell the VPN adapter the IP address of your Proxy Server's external NIC address.  To establish the VPN link, you first connect to your ISP using your normal DUN connection.  Then use the second DUN connection, which is using the VPN adapter instead of your modem to 'tunnel' through to your private corporate network.  You will be prompted for your domain username and password.  After this connection is established you will have two DUN connections running at the same time, one within the other and you should be able to ping your internal Exchange Server.  At this point you will need to tell Outlook where to look for the Exchange Server.  You can create a host file entry that points to your Exchange Server and use the Mail applet in Control Panel to inform Outlook which mail server to connect to.

Figure 1. Establishing a VPN from your home computer to your corporate network.