Synchronise problem with Exchange server

C

curtis

I was hoping the upgrade would fix this - but it hasn't. I have a large
email database - about 3GB. With Entourage 2004 on a G3 PowerBook
running OSX 10.3.9, I get two problems - 1) the creation of several
hundred Blck-xxxx files in the Entourage Temp folder - anything from
200kB to 500kB per file. They eventually get deleted after several
restarts of Entourage. 2) The error log also shows anything between a
few and several hundred or more of the same error message "Could not
syncrhonize record....." xxxxxx xxxxxxx xx etc" ...Error -18498. The
latter is an HTTP error, it translates to something like HTTP 404 or
405.

The email functions ok - but is incredibly slow because of all this
synchronisation activity - and I don't seem to get the any Public
Calendars to show up - even though a bunch of synchronization activity
takes place when I try to look at one. I am suspicious that it is due
to the Exchange Account setup - because no one else seems to report
these symptoms? It only started with entourage 2004 - never had these
problems with Entourage X.
 
W

William Smith

I was hoping the upgrade would fix this - but it hasn't. I have a large
email database - about 3GB. With Entourage 2004 on a G3 PowerBook
running OSX 10.3.9, I get two problems - 1) the creation of several
hundred Blck-xxxx files in the Entourage Temp folder - anything from
200kB to 500kB per file. They eventually get deleted after several
restarts of Entourage. 2) The error log also shows anything between a
few and several hundred or more of the same error message "Could not
syncrhonize record....." xxxxxx xxxxxxx xx etc" ...Error -18498. The
latter is an HTTP error, it translates to something like HTTP 404 or
405.

The email functions ok - but is incredibly slow because of all this
synchronisation activity - and I don't seem to get the any Public
Calendars to show up - even though a bunch of synchronization activity
takes place when I try to look at one. I am suspicious that it is due
to the Exchange Account setup - because no one else seems to report
these symptoms? It only started with entourage 2004 - never had these
problems with Entourage X.
Click to expand...


Hi Curtis!

Your issue sounds exactly like what I face at work when using our OWA
(webmail address) server as my Exchange server.

My work computer is configured to access our Exchange server directly.
By this I mean that it's pointing to the name of the Exchange server as
it appears inside our network. However, my home computer is configured
to access the same email account using my OWA server.

When I use my OWA server address, a few things don't work because of the
security my organization has implemented on our firewall. Nothing that I
create at home synchronizes to my work account although I can send and
receive email, address book doesn't function and calendar lookups won't
work.

If this sounds like your issue, verify the address you're using for your
Exchange server. Is it an internal email server address or an external
address? Definitely point to an internal address. You'll also notice
that the synchronization activity will decrease significantly and
Entourage will be more responsive. Your error messages will also
probably be eliminated.

If you're unable to point to an internal address and must use your OWA
address, you'll need to work with your networking folks to watch your
incoming traffic as you try to connect. They should be able to identify
the blocked port(s) and open them if their security allows.

Hope this helps! bill
 
C

curtis

Bill

Many thanks for your quick reply - much appreciated.
I think you are getting closer to the problem than I could ever get the
MS help desk to go. I am afraid that I no longer really understand some
of the addressing issues these days.

The Entourage Identity that I am using has something set up in its
Account settings under both "email" and "Exchange". In each case the
server address is just the "name" of our server (not an explicit IP
address and no ports are referred to). I guess some kind of DNS
resolver translates the name to the IP address ?

I have noticed that when I have taken my PowerBook away - for example
to a hotel - where there is NO way (believe me!) it could ever connect
back to our server, Entourage wakes up and begins to happily
"re-synchronise" with the server - ie it just sits there talking to the
universe - with nothing coming back. I also notice that, while I am in
the office, if I disconnect my hard wired ethernet connection, and
start up my Airport network connection, to the same server, Entourage
starts to re-synchronise again. It must think I've changed location or
something and needs to resync.

If you have any additional pointers that might guide me towards a
solution to this I would be really grateful. This has burnt up hours
and hours since I upgraded to 2004 at Christmas. Getting sorely tempted
to go back to Entourage X, or just revert to a simple email client.

Many thanks again.
 
A

Andy Ruff

Curtis,

The attempts by Entourage to check your mail when you cannot connect is the
result of Entourage taking a bit to realize it can no longer access the mail
server it was speaking to before. It's not really synchronizing
anything--just reporting that it's attempting to. It will eventually give
up. The key is to see if Entourage places a "(Not Connected)" label behind
the Exchange account in your main window's folder list.

Here's a bit more background on how Exchange accounts are often configured
for Entourage and how, depending on the account's configuration, you may or
may not be able to access your mail from outside your office--generally,
there are two ways to configure Entourage to find your Exchange server:

#1: Access internal to your company only

The server will often look something like "mail-02" or something. Most
importantly, the server name is often lacking any sort of ".com" or ".co.uk"
in it's name. If Entourage is configured this way, Entourage will typically
only synchronize when you're in the office or connected via VPN.

#2: Internal and external access

The server will look something like "mail.example.com", including the ".com"
and other such domain suffixes you use when regularly within your web
browser. Not all organizations support this--but if you're able to access
your e-mail using Safari from home, then it will work with Entourage as
well.

For example, if you go to https://mail.example.com/exchange/ to get your
mail in Safari, you go to your Exchange account in Entourage and type
"mail.example.com" in the server field for the account and check the "Use
SSL" checkbox (https equals SSL).

If this works out, you can then check your e-mail from home, work, or any
other location you find Internet access.

-Andy

--
Andy Ruff
MacBU Program Management
Entourage Weblog: http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/

This posting is provided ³AS IS² with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
C

curtis

Andy

Thanks for your reply. However, we are getting distracted from the main
problem. I am not trying to connect from "outside" - I'll worry about
that later. I am sat 50 metres from our local server on a hardwired
network. Every activity I undertake in Entourage - ie/eg send one
email / receive one email - results in a tortuous "synchronise"
activity. If I try anything with a batch of emails - the "synchronise"
takes ages. Yesterday I deleted, say, 100 emails - it probably took
half an hour to "synchronise". While this is happenning there is a
bunch of local disk i/o and network i/o going on - and the infamous
Blck-xxxx files get created (and not deleted). The "Not connected"
shows up intermittently against the Exchange account - but everything
works in the end - it all just takes forever - and I end up with
hundreds of megabytes of Blck-xxxxx files. These eventually get deleted
by Entourage, during shutdown - but not every time - and I can't figure
out the logic of when it decides that it can clear them out. So far I
can't find out under what conditions these files are created - and then
later , deleted. I don't think anyone else appears to see them !!
 
C

curtis

Just an update - I have changed the server address to an explicit IP
address ie XXX.xxx.xxx.xxx. This seems to eliminate any Error messages,
and stops the "Not connected" message from intermittently appearing.
However, the lenghthy synchronises and the Blck-xxxx files still
occur/appear.
 
C

curtis

Just another thought/question: How much of this behaviour would be
caused by NOT having the Update for Exchange Server installed on our MS
server ?
 
A

Andy Ruff

It's possible, though Entoruage works fairly reasonable without the lastest
updates. The problems you've described don't sound like ones that result
from the lack of server updates.

-Andy

--
Andy Ruff
MacBU Program Management
Entourage Weblog: http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/

This posting is provided ³AS IS² with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
W

William Smith

Just an update - I have changed the server address to an explicit IP
address ie XXX.xxx.xxx.xxx. This seems to eliminate any Error messages,
and stops the "Not connected" message from intermittently appearing.
However, the lenghthy synchronises and the Blck-xxxx files still
occur/appear.
Click to expand...

Hi Curtis!

I've read your other messages and glad you're making a little progress.
Although you're only about 50 metres away from the server, are you
possibly going through either a proxy, router or firewall? Your issue
sounds network related.

bill
 
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