Unable to communicate with the Scalix server...

[ah4279]

I have a user who is occasionally getting the following message when his Outlook 2003 client tries to connect w/Scalix server. A reboot of the client system seems to resolve the problem but that's not really an acceptable solution.

>>>>

Unable to communicate with the Scalix server because of an error in the network. If the problem persists, check your network connection.

Details:
UAL Network Error:
Failed to establish a connection with the server process.
Connection refused.

Connection Type: Windows Sockets

<<<<

Any ideas?

[ScalixSupport]

Hi,

How is this user accessing the server? Over a wan, wan/vpn? Interesting that it is happening to only one user. I'd look at the user's ip configuration on the workstation. Is the DNS server correct? Is there anything in their hosts file?

Thanks,
Don

[ah4279]

1) The user is on the local LAN
2) IP configuration is via DHCP
3) DNS server is pointing at the correct IP address for mail.xxx.com
4) hosts contains "127.0.0.1 localhost"

Any other things to look at?

[ScalixSupport]

I'm thinking about all things network related. His NIC, cable, the port his cable plugs into, where his port is patched into the punchdown block/switch.

This is for only one user and you've posted the error that refers to the network...

Regards,
Don

[ah4279]

The network is fine as far as I can tell. The words that concern me are "Connection Refused" in the error message. If the error message said something like "Connection timed out" I would be more concerned about the network but the wording "Connection Refused" leads me to beleive that the server refused the connection.

Am I way off base in making that assumption?

[ScalixSupport]

Hi,

Try adding the IP and Host Name of the Scalix Server to the user's C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\ Hosts file.

Are there any 3rd party plug-ins installed in this user's OL? Does the user have multiple services within the Scalix profile?

Let us know,

Matthew
Support

[emartinson]

I also have this problem when disconnecting the network connection and trying to bring up outlook.. I've enabled offline access, and could have just sync'd the mail, but if I shut down Outlook, turn off the network access (as if I was on a plane or something), then start outlook again I get this error. Outlook complains that it can't open default information store, then quits. I've checked every setting that someone in this forum has come up with, but it still doesn't work.

I'm using Outlook 2003, and I just installed the newest version of Scalix on December 22 (I don't have access to the server to check now). Any ideas?

[cmcnabb]

I have seen the error you are talking about emartinson. It is not Scalix related.
I used to see this with my users on Exchange. It was linked to the fact that an offline folder file wasn't created yet. I had to go on, create this file. I also had to make sure that the program asked me whether I wanted to work online or offline when I started Outlook. I would then restart Outlook, choose connect, and then hit F9. It would completely populate the offline folder file. Then I could close outlook, choose work offline, and it would work like it's supposed to.

[emartinson]

Thanks for that... I noticed that on my system I actually had to reboot to make the change effective - stopping and starting Outlook didn't do it. So I spent about 2 hours trying to make it work, quit for the night, then the next morning I booted up and the first thing it asked me was to work online or offline. Should have remembered that 98% of Windows errors are solved by reboot :-P.