Common problems when enabling RPC/HTTP(s) in Outlook 2003

These are four of the most common problems I've seen when setting up this configuration:

#1: In the “Exchange server“ field in the first page of the wizard to add an Exchange account, enter the name of your exchange server which might be something like myexchangeserver.subdomain.mycompany.com. In the “Exchange Proxy Settings” dialog, enter the name of your proxy server, which might be something like myserver.mycompany.com. Although this seems obvious to some, I've seen people mix this up because no one actually reads dialogs, and it might take a logical leap to say “Even though I don't have direct access to my exchange server right now, I need to have the exchange server name listed in the configuration.”[1] 

#2: If you're configuring RPC/HTTP without having RPC access to the Exchange server, do not check names. Cancel out of that dialog and then go into More Settings to configure the RPC Proxy first.

#3: If you don't see the “Exchange over the Internet“ section on the Connection tab after clicking on More Settings, then follow the steps in KB #833401 to set the EnableRPCTunnelingUI reg key.

#4: Install the hotfix in KB #331320.

[1] Note that depending on how your firewall/proxy is configured, these two fields could be the same.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The answers are described here.
• Anonymous
  March 07, 2004
  Even with everything set up correctly I just couldn't get Outlook to connect using RPC over HTTP.
  
  In the end I removed/reinstalled RPC over HTTP from the server, removed/re-added the certificate for the site, remove/reinstalled the root certificate for the domain and it now works even though nothing is configured differently to how it was before.
  
  Weird!
• Anonymous
  March 23, 2004
  Thank you, thank you, thank you.
  
  I saw the option for doing this in Outlook 2003, but I really didn't know what it was for...until I got to work one day and realized that I didn't need to use Exchange 2003 OWA any more.
  
  It was very helpful to have the instructions posted to your blog. Sure, I would have found it one day, but it would have been a long time from now.
  
  Thanks again!
  
  Please pass my gratitude along to the people responsible for implementing that feature, it's definitely what I needed!
• Anonymous
  March 27, 2004
  Configured the rpc over http. Configured the client. Tried to debug by using outlook /rpcdiag. Outlook mail services are connecting fine but it is unable to connect to directory services. Any help/pointer will be highly appreciated.
• Anonymous
  April 09, 2004
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  April 10, 2004
  Vinny: If you can connect to exchange but not directory, then I would check the connection between your rpcproxy server and the directory, as well as the exchange mailbox server and the directory. The client does not go directly to the directory server in the rpc/http case.
  
  Patrik: I asked about this a while back and was told that the lack of a 'remember pw' checkbox was the expected behavior due to some problems that were encountered, and not enough time to address all the problems.
  
• Anonymous
  April 12, 2004
  RPC over HTTP has been working fine. We made some server system setting changes for another problem. Now RPC over HTTP is still up and connected, but no new messages are arriving at the client. What services or settings on the server should I look at.
  
  Ian ian@experienceplus.com
• Anonymous
  April 12, 2004
  Ian,
  
  I'd start first by looking at what changes were made the server.
  Also, verify that the client is connected via RPC/HTTP, and that Cached mode isn't hiding the fact that RPC/HTTP isn't connected. Can you send mail with the client?
  Do you get new mail when you hit F5 (or what ever it is in outlook that goes off and checks for mail)?
  There is a polling interval setting in Exchange, to tell Outlook how often to poll, but unless you changed this in the change of the server settings, it should not be a problem.
  
• Anonymous
  April 16, 2004
  Nice article !
  
  i have a strange problem. I configured the Exchange server and two users PC, all is ok.
  
  On a third one, it keeps connecting via TCPIP and not HTTPS when i check with /rpcdiag option appended to Outlook shortcut.
  
  When i launch a "netstat -an" i see a connection from the user's PC to the Exchange server using HTTPS (ending with ....:443 ESTABLISHED).
  
  If i then use a remote connection (modem connection to internet) i just can connect to my server, while i still see an HTTPS succesful connection.
  
  What can be wrong ?
• Anonymous
  April 17, 2004
  I have that same issue
• Anonymous
  April 18, 2004
  Good news : i think i found out the problem.
  
  My server SSL certificate was not truster by my local client.
  
  What i did :
  
  On the server
  - search my .crt file on the server (had an impossible name)
  - renamed it to "mycompany.crt"
  - copied it to my wwwroot directory
  
  On the client
  - opened htt://myserver/mycompany.crt
  - answer "open"
  - and then install it using "next", "ok" and "finisg" (defaults)
  
  then everything is ok :)
• Anonymous
  May 13, 2004
  Good helpful tips!
  I've almost got outlook working with rpc/http with one hitch, it doesn't seem to connect with the Directory properly..
  
  Here is the strange thing, it'll try using servername.domainname a few times, after it reports it cannot connect to the server if I hit retry it'll try the FQDN once more then it'll connect showing just the server name(no domain name)
  There is no problems with the mail connecting on https.
  
  
• Anonymous
  May 13, 2004
  Nevermind I think I found the problem, I had the servername:6004 entry in twice in the registry. Musta had a brain fart when typing that in.
• Anonymous
  June 10, 2004
  Hi! Thank you for the helpful advice on RPC/HTTPS.
  
  I got everything working on our system, except that there is a problem with another proxy that used for web browsing. When the IE proxy is turned on, RPC over HTTPS must go through this, and it is very slow to send/receive email. When the proxy is turned off, send/receive is very fast. Unfortunately, this disables web browsing for the users (the proxy is required by the domain and I have no control over it.) Any suggestions?
  
  Thanks,
  Kyle
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2004
  Hello,
  
  I am having a problem with RPC over HTTPS. I setup my server (which is 2003 AD, Exchange in one with SP1) as "server.abc.com" but my web domain name is "abc123.com". When I try to configure RPC on my desktop at home, i put as my server "server.abc.abc123.com" however it then asks for the username/password but the domain goes to "server.abc.com" then after I try to enter the password it asks again with the domain as just "server". I would greatly appreciate some help with this matter as I cannot access my network from home.
  
  Thanks!
  Sen
• Anonymous
  June 23, 2004
  Quick question . i am having problems sending attachments over 100 KB in size using RPC over HTTP. could you throw some light on how sending attachments might be different in RPC from sending normal mails ?
• Anonymous
  July 02, 2004
  Hello,
  
  When I open outlook 2003 with the
• Anonymous
  July 02, 2004
  Hello,
  
  I have a strange problem with Outlook 2003 when I want to connect to my exchange 2003 server with rpc over http the application can't identify me even if it works with tcp/ip protocol.
  
  I am sure that rpc over http is well installed.
  
  Thanks.
  Samy