Offline & Online Switching

[Dan Abramson]

Hello...
I have a laptop user using Outlook 2003. When the user is online and
connected to the LAN everything works great. However a problem arises
when the user uses Outlook 2003 in a disconnected state. Apparently Outlook
2003
used to identify that a LAN wasn't connected when his laptop is undocked and
would automatically go into an offline state. Now Outlook goes into a
disconnected state. This is a problem because... when the user logs off
Outlook after creating an e-mail and sending it, the user gets a couple of
error codes stating that no LAN is
present. We figured out how to manually change to offline mode by clicking
in the right hand corner (within Outlook) but this switching of modes used to
happen automatically. Do I need to recreate the user's Outlook profile?
Finally, the user does a great deal of syncing his mail and contacts when he
is connected. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Jeanne]

Hello...
I have a laptop user using Outlook 2003. When the user is online and
connected to the LAN everything works great. However a problem arises
when the user uses Outlook 2003 in a disconnected state. Apparently Outlook
2003
used to identify that a LAN wasn't connected when his laptop is undocked and
would automatically go into an offline state. Now Outlook goes into a
disconnected state. This is a problem because... when the user logs off
Outlook after creating an e-mail and sending it, the user gets a couple of
error codes stating that no LAN is
present. We figured out how to manually change to offline mode by clicking
in the right hand corner (within Outlook) but this switching of modes used to
happen automatically. Do I need to recreate the user's Outlook profile?
Finally, the user does a great deal of syncing his mail and contacts when he
is connected. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Jeanne]

Can you be clearer on what you are saying? When the user is connected to the
network, it is still saying disconnected on bootup of Outlook? Is he
disconnected first with outlook opened, connects to the network, and then
stays in disconnected? I have seen one instances where a person won't go
online. If he has a PDA that synchs with Outlook and the PDA software is
part of bootup process, it will keep Outlook disconnected even on the
network. Also, did you check his settings to make sure "Automatically
detect" is selected?

 

[Dan Abramson]

Hi Jeanne
When the user is connected to the network Outlook Automatically connects.
The status shows "Connected". This is not the problem. The problem is when
the laptop user is undocked from the network. The user shuts down his laptop
undocks the laptop and carries the PC onto the train. When on the train he
composes e-mails and sends them. The state of Outlook then shows
"Disconnected". It should show "Offline". When the user then gets out of
Outlook he gets 2 error codes. I am trying to avoid having the user get
these error codes. I have been able to swithc to "Offline" mode in Outlook
manually but this process used to be automatic. Any ideas?

 

[james.battle]

Has anyone managed to get this going yet?

 

[Dan Abramson]

Hi James I spoke with a Microsof Rep today. Basically, Outlook 2003
automatically goes into a disconnected state when working offline (undocked
for laptop users). This is a change from Outlook 2002 and 2000 where the
user went into an offline state. Basically you can generate an error when
composing an e-mail in Outlook 2003 and then try sending it while not
connected to the network. THe error codes basically state that no network is
present. duh? Microsoft rep suggested that the user has to manually choose
offline from the menu bar FILE-> WORK OFFLINE. Once the user is reconnected
to the Exchange Server and part of the network make suer to uncheck this
feature to get back online. It's a work around and one less feature that
existed with previous versions of Outlook. Hopefully it will be reinstated
in 2006?