New messages aren't downloading

D

drudas99

In our organization we have Macs running Entourage 2004 and PC's
running Outlook 2003. We seem to have a recurring problem with SOME
but not all of the Entourage users.
A recurring problem that has been happening is when Entourage is
trying to update or send/receive messages. The user I am working with
at the moment hasn't received any emails in his Entourage account
since early this morning. I logged onto his webmail (OWA) account and
noticed that there were emails on the server that did have not been
downloaded by Entourage. Currently, Entourage is stuck trying to
update "Sent Items". It is not updating any new email in the inbox.

List of what we've tried so far:
-restarted computer
-deleted Entourage preferences
-Ran Office Update
-Switched Identities and created a new one for this user


Please help, this one is tough.
 
D

Diane Ross

In our organization we have Macs running Entourage 2004 and PC's
running Outlook 2003. We seem to have a recurring problem with SOME
but not all of the Entourage users.
A recurring problem that has been happening is when Entourage is
trying to update or send/receive messages. The user I am working with
at the moment hasn't received any emails in his Entourage account
since early this morning. I logged onto his webmail (OWA) account and
noticed that there were emails on the server that did have not been
downloaded by Entourage. Currently, Entourage is stuck trying to
update "Sent Items". It is not updating any new email in the inbox.

List of what we've tried so far:
-restarted computer
-deleted Entourage preferences
-Ran Office Update
-Switched Identities and created a new one for this user


Please help, this one is tough.
Click to expand...
If you ask again and put Exchange in the subject, someone with exchange
experience will be more likely to see the email and respond.


--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
W

William Smith

In our organization we have Macs running Entourage 2004 and PC's
running Outlook 2003. We seem to have a recurring problem with SOME
but not all of the Entourage users.
A recurring problem that has been happening is when Entourage is
trying to update or send/receive messages. The user I am working with
at the moment hasn't received any emails in his Entourage account
since early this morning. I logged onto his webmail (OWA) account and
noticed that there were emails on the server that did have not been
downloaded by Entourage. Currently, Entourage is stuck trying to
update "Sent Items". It is not updating any new email in the inbox.

List of what we've tried so far:
-restarted computer
-deleted Entourage preferences
-Ran Office Update
-Switched Identities and created a new one for this user
Click to expand...

Be sure that while inside your company network you're using the address
of a "backend" Exchange Server and not the HTTP address of your OWA
server. Have a look at this page on the Entourage Help Page for basic
instructions <http://entourage.mvps.org/exchange/exchangeatwork.html>.

Hope this helps! bill
 
D

drudas99

Be sure that while inside your company network you're using the address
of a "backend" Exchange Server and not the HTTP address of your OWA
server. Have a look at this page on the Entourage Help Page for basic
instructions <http://entourage.mvps.org/exchange/exchangeatwork.html>.

Hope this helps! bill
Click to expand...



That is an interesting thought. Currently we have the entourage
machines configured to the HTTPS address of our OWA server. I will
try to change it to see if it helps. Thanks for your help.
 
D

drudas99

William,

I changed the address to one of our backend servers and disabled the
secure connection. It looks like its working. Do you have any idea
why pointing to the OWA server was causing this problem?
 
W

William Smith

William,

I changed the address to one of our backend servers and disabled the
secure connection. It looks like its working. Do you have any idea
why pointing to the OWA server was causing this problem?
Click to expand...

Very glad this seems to be working for you now. While I've recommended
this a few times to folks with similar problems your response is the
first confirmation I've had that this may resolve the issue.

Every network is different so I can't give you an exact answer why
you're seeing this problem but essentially using the OWA server at work
means Entourage connects to your email account by leaving your company
network to go to the Internet and then coming back inside your company
network to access the OWA server. You're probably passing through at
least a firewall and a proxy server. Many proxy servers scan incoming
traffic for viruses and you're also sharing this traffic with other
people accessing the Internet. Also some network routes can be
programmed with "priorities" to allow some types of traffic to pass
through more quickly than others. Streaming media, such as audio or
video feeds, have to be given a higher priority to avoid interruptions.
Email not so much priority.

As you can see many things could be affecting your performance by not
taking the most direct route to your Exchange Server account.

Hope this helps! bill
 
D

drudas99

Well, now heres an issue I did not consider. This particular employee
travels alot, so this is the reason why he was directed to the owa
server. Now that I've changed him to our backend exchange server, he
won't be able to access his email when he's away from the office. I
will have to change him back.
I've been told that large email account sizes can do weird things in
entourage. I'm going to look into archiving. Any more suggestions
are appreciated.
 
D

Diane Ross

I've been told that large email account sizes can do weird things in
entourage. I'm going to look into archiving. Any more suggestions
are appreciated.
Click to expand...

One way to keep your database lean is to use a script to archive
attachments. You can set a outgoing rule to delete attachments from sent
mail. Usually you have these on your computer and there is no need to store
them in Entourage too.

I recommend using a script that removes the attachments and leaves a note in
the message indicating an attachment was removed and where the attachment is
moved.

There are two listed on the Favorite Scripts Page for attachments:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/script/fav_scripts.html>
--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
W

William Smith

Diane Ross said:
One way to keep your database lean is to use a script to archive
attachments. You can set a outgoing rule to delete attachments from sent
mail. Usually you have these on your computer and there is no need to store
them in Entourage too.

I recommend using a script that removes the attachments and leaves a note in
the message indicating an attachment was removed and where the attachment is
moved.

There are two listed on the Favorite Scripts Page for attachments:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/script/fav_scripts.html>
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, attachments can not be stripped from Exchange Server
messages. A complaint I've had since the early days of Entourage 2004.

My experience with Entourage and Exchange accounts larger than about
100-500MB is limited but I do know of one user who had a 4GB Exchange
Server mailbox and was having no issues as well. Mileage will vary per
user though.

While using the external OWA address instead of the internal server
address does allow the user to move between the inside and the outside
networks without changing settings, the downside is the performance hit
that you're seeing.

Changing the server address in the account will wipe out all information
and cause it to be downloaded again. That's not desirable. The best
alternative I can offer is to set up Entourage with two identities, both
the with the same account settings except for the server address. One
identity will be for internal use and use the internal server address
and the second will be for Internet access and use the OWA address. This
means that when switching, one identity will always have to play catchup
with mail and appointments. But that may be worth the few extra minutes.

Hope this helps! bill
 
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