Hello!

I don't know if this is the right place to ask my question, so forgive me, if not.
I'm facing a weird problem within excel (2007 and 2013) when I'm trying to refresh or filter data retrieved from a cube (Microsoft Analysis Server 10.0.4000.0). The message is: An error was encountered in the transport layer. The weird part of the problem is that it does not show up every time and not for every user. I can access the cube, I can read data from it, the problem appears when I try to add or remove fields, or when I try to refresh the pivot table. And not always!

There are cases when I try to build up a new pivot table, and the message appears, when I already have selected a couple of fields as filter/row label/column label or value. In these cases sometimes I can skip the problem by deselecting one or more of the already selected fields, select a new field, then re-select the previously deselected fields.

There are other cases when I have a saved pivot table, that can't be refreshed because of the transport layer error. However, the same file with the same user ca be refreshed on an another machine.

I already have googled around, and I actually found a few forum entries with the same problem, but none of them was answered.

To narrow down the problem I tried to exclude hardware level network problems, so saved a file, which couldn't be refreshed on my laptop, and I tried to refresh it on a PC. On the PC the refresh worked, so I moved my laptop next to this PC, and I connected the laptop to the network using the PC's network cable, and tried to refresh the file this way on the laptop. The refresh was not successful, so I even changed the IP address on the laptop to the IP that was set on the PC. I also stopped the antivirus (which actually is identical on the PC and laptop). This way I wanted to ensure, that there is nothing blocking the traffic between the server and the laptop. 

I also tried to find out, if the problem is user related. So i tried to refresh the file, that couldn't be refreshed on my laptop on the previously mentioned PC with my user. The refresh worked. I also tried to refresh the same file on my laptop with the user originally used on the PC. The refresh did not work.

Thank you!