I recently installed Service Pack 2 for Exchange 2003 and I noticed that the client workstations are not automatically connecting the Exchange Server. The workstations show an Offline status, but once I press the Send/Receive button I receive email. I can talk to the Exchange server, I just can't automatically connect. No settings were changed on the Client side, everything was working fine until I installed this service pack. The client computers are set to automatically connect but they won't. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Based on your info, OL's connection status shows offline. But send & receive can work by "send/receive" button or F9. Please collect the following info to isolate issue: 1. Supposed that you've checked "work offline" in "file" menu. 2. Can you bring OL status back to "connect" manually? 3. Affected user's scope, all users? 4. client OS version, OL version Basic troubleshooting: 1. Start OL in safe mode <Start->Run->fill in "outlook /safe"> 2. Check "connection status" of OL when connecting to an Exchange Server a. CTRL + Click the Outlook tray icon b. Choose 'Connection Status" 3. Save and clear log file in event viewer, then reproduce issue. Check if there's any error info in log file. 4. Create a new test mail account, login on a new test pc (isolate issue to server or client side) The basic mechanism that OL uses to determine when it should go in offline mode is: 1. if there's no available network (as indicated by Windows), then you will see the status offline 2. when user fails to authenticate/cancels authentication Workaround (applied to OL 03): OL 03 uses IPHLPAPI.dll to determine whether we can use a network to connect, if IPHLPAPI reports that NON_OPERATIONAL, OL will not use it and therefore not connect. Even though all the other applications successfully will be able to be use the network as they do not depend on this particular dll file. Notes: This issue should not be there if you are using Windows XP SP2. Create the following registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\RPC DWORD: CheckAdapterOperStatus Value: 1 This will basically ignore the status being reported by .dll and will always connect using the network card available

I feel like a ***. I listened to a customer. The work offline was checked. So apparently either the customer checked it or somehow it got checked. I don't know. But I am glad you found my problem. Thanks a bunch. I didn't even think to look at that option.