out of office assistant, server not available?
Hi, This seems to have been a common error a few years ago but I've just run into it and have newer systems, software, patches, whathaveyou, than are listed in all the articles I've read so I'm wondering if there is something new out there to help resolve this issue. I have upgraded two of my users from Windows XP 32-bit, Office 2010 with Exchange 2007 server on the backend to Windows 7 64-bit, Office 2010 (32-bit) with the same Exchange 2007 backend. All of my Windows XP users have been running for a couple of years without issues. The two Windows 7 users have been running for almost 2 weeks and this is the first time we've seen this. Nothing has been changed on the Exchange server. When trying to access the Out Of Office Assistant they get the following error: "Your automatic reply settings cannot be displayed because the server is currently unavailable. Try again later." Both of these users have been with the company over 10 years so their accounts were created before we had a standardized account naming policy. So their Windows login names are different than their email addresses, which is where I think the problem resides. I've looked at and/or attempted just about everything I've found on the web so far with no luck. This includes a hot fix from Microsoft for Outlook 2010 that is supposed to address this issue. But then I run it on the computer it tells me that, "There are no products affected by this package installed on this system." The results of the Test email-autoconfiguration look good to me, but this is the only system I've ever looked at. When I ran the test it asked for user credentials and if I gave it the primary email address it would fail, giving it the Windows logon username and password and it would run successfully. Which I think indicates the disconnect. I've checked the DNS for an autodiscover entry and that looks correct. The one thing I haven't tried yet was the uninstallation of KB973917, which will have to wait for after hours work so I can reboot the server. So I am at a loss. I'm no real expert on Exchange or Outlook, but I'm the closest thing we have around here. It seems this issue has been around for a long time and that a solution must be available but it eludes me. Any suggestions on where to go from here? Thanks in advance, Linn
August 8th, 2012 4:43pm

Hi Linn, Does it work for any users with Outlook 2007/2010? I think you have a problem with Autodiscover and to start the troubleshooting, run Test-OutlookWebServices in Exchange Management Shell (EMS) to verify your Autodiscover settings. If you post the output of the command, it will be easier for us to help you. Do you have a trusted certificate installed?Martina Miskovic
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August 9th, 2012 12:13am

Hi Martina, All of my users are running Outlook 2010 and so far only these two users are experiencing trouble. I'm not sure if I'm doing this correctly. I ran the following command in the Exchange Management Shell: test-outlookwebservices -identity:myemail@mydomain.com And it returned Id Type Message -- ---- ------- 1003 Information About to test AutoDiscover with the e-mail add... 1006 Information The Autodiscover service was contacted at http... 1016 Success [EXCH]-Successfully contacted the AS service a... 1015 Success [EXCH]-Successfully contacted the OAB service ... 1014 Success [EXCH]-Successfully contacted the UM service a... 1006 Success The Autodiscover service was tested successfully. Then I repeated using the email address of one of the failing accounts and got this: Id Type Message -- ---- ------- 1003 Information About to test AutoDiscover with the e-mail add... 1006 Information The Autodiscover service was contacted at http... 1016 Success [EXCH]-Successfully contacted the AS service a... 1015 Success [EXCH]-Successfully contacted the OAB service ... 1014 Success [EXCH]-Successfully contacted the UM service a... 1006 Success The Autodiscover service was tested successfully. Is there a way to get the full messages? It looks like these were truncated. But it does say success for each attempt. What do you think? Thanks, Linn
August 9th, 2012 8:26am

hi, Please browser the autodiscover url on your problematic user's pc. See if you can get some error? hope can help you thanks,CastinLu TechNet Community Support
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August 13th, 2012 12:05am

Hi CastinLu, I typed http://autodiscover into the browser on a computer that is working logged in as a user that is working and the Outlook Web Access (OWA) login popped up immediately. When I typed it into one of the new computers logged in as a user having the problem, it took a while, like 5 seconds, but then popped up the OWA login as well. Both computers are running IE 8. Only difference I saw was the speed at which it responded. Is this what I'm supposed to see? Thanks, Linn
August 13th, 2012 8:51am

Just as a follow up, when I start a cmd prompt on both computers and run 'tracert autodiscover' I see the same response. c:\>tracert autodiscover Tracing route to <servername>.domain.com [internal ip address] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms <servername>.domain.com [internal ip address] Trace complete. I thought to try this because I've seen other discussions on this issue which say that when they run Test E-mail AutoConfiguration they see OOF returning an outside URL. And that is not my case. OOF URL: https://servername.domain.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx is what I get. Hope this helps, Linn
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August 13th, 2012 8:59am

hi, So it seems that your autodiscover is ok. But i am not sure oof url. So could you please do the above test for oof url. thanks,CastinLu TechNet Community Support
August 14th, 2012 6:03am

Hi, I tried the OOF url, which is a https:// url, on the same two computers using the same accounts as the last test. On the working computer I was presented a login dialog and logged in as the working user and it returned a XML file. On the other computer using the troubled email account it just wouldn't accept the username/password until I entered the Windows username. Then it returned the same XML page. This is what seems odd to me... I set up the user's previous computer, Windows XP sp3 with Office 2010, and ran these same tests. I got exactly the same results as on the Windows 7 computer, using her email address as the login name under OOF. Yet OOF works on the old computer. I'm stumped. Thanks, Linn
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August 14th, 2012 9:28am

hi, If you can, please post your whole url include oof and autodiscover. And can you tell me more about the two users, such as their window account and their different email address. And if you can, please post the result of test-emailautoconfiguration include normal user and problematic user. thanks, CastinLu TechNet Community Support
August 16th, 2012 5:46am

Hi, I'm a little hesitant to publish all those exact details about my network and users on a public forum like this. Is there a more secure way I can get you that information? One other thing I don't know that I mentioned before but both users get reoccuring prompts to authenticate to the Exchange server using their email addresses. For example, one user's Windows login is smith and his email address is jsmith. When I log in as him on the new computer Outlook runs fine for the most part, however, it keeps popping up a login dialog box asking him to authenticate jsmith@mydomain.com. I'm trying to use Wireshark to see the difference in network traffic. But it's the first time I've used Wireshark and I'm not sure what I'm doing yet or how to configure it to get what I want. I appreciate the help, Linn
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August 16th, 2012 8:52am

I just realized something in our Test Email AutoConfiguration results. There's an entry at the end that says "Auth Package: Unspecified". Should this be specified? One article I was reading on line that showed a screen shot of their results had it set to NTLM. If I need to set it, how would I do that? Thanks, Linn
August 16th, 2012 12:27pm

Looks as though we've run out of help on this one but I'll post updates hoping it will spark an idea somewhere. I just converted myself to the Windows 7 platform. My account is more normal, I believe, in that my Windows user name and Outlook default email address are the same. I launched Outlook and tried to set the Out Of Office assistant but received the same message. "Your automatic reply settings cannot be displayed because the servier is currently unavailable. Try again later." And I get the occasional pop up to authenticate to Exchange. So now I'm not so sure this has anything to do with the user name/email address difference. The log of Test E-mail AutoConfiguration shows the following: Attempting URL https://servername.domain.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml found through SCP Autodiscover to https://servername.domain.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml starting GetLastError=0; httpStatus=200 Autodiscover to https://servername.domain.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml Succeeded (0x00000000) Any thoughts? Thanks, Linn
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August 29th, 2012 11:09am

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