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Andrew J. Brehm
Asked: 2013-04-28 10:50:03 +0800 CST

Outlook 2010 fails to connect to Exchange 2013

  • 772

I have an Exchange Server 2013 and I am trying to connect using Outlook 2010. Both are running on the same server. The Outlook installation is just for testing mailboxes.

Outlook first refused to connect because the network adapter didn't have a default gateway and apparently Outlook requires a default gateway to connect to 127.0.0.1.

Now the network adapter has a default gateway and Outlook continues to pretend that it cannot find the Exchange server.

The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.

This happens regardless of whether I use the Exchange server's name ("exchange") or its (fixed) IP address or "localhost" or 127.0.0.1.

What am I doing wrong?

Update:

After that error message, this small window appears with a slightly different error message.

enter image description here

For some reason Outlook cannot "resolve" the name 127.0.0.1. The same message appears when I try any other name or IP address that points to this same local server including localhost and the server's name and the server's IP address in 192.168.0.0/24.

exchange

5 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Found it! It was so easy...

    This site had the answer.

    http://www.msoutlook.info/question/531

    Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\Exchange Provider 
Value name: DS Server 
Value type: REG_SZ 
Value: FQDN of the GC server

    Apparently the global catalog server (I have only one domain controller for the root domain and it is running as it is also the DNS) was missing.

    Once I added its name to the "DS Server" value, the connection works!

    But why Outlook needs the global catalog server to resolve a DNS name when DNS is working I don't know.

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  2. first of all, are you using a proxy server in IE? Those tend to mess things up quite a bit. Secondly, could you tell me what kind of output you get from right clicking the outlook icon in the task tray (next to the clock :)) and performing a "test e-mail autoconfiguration"? Uncheck both guesssmart boxes...

    This will try and connect to the autodiscover website (localhost/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml) to get the URLS for the services.

    • 0

  3. Exchange 2013 uses RPC over http rather than MAPI, on "Connection Settings" try setting up the RPC settings.

    • -1

  4. In my case I was getting following message while setting up Outlook 2010 for Exchange 2013.

    The action cannot be completed. The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.

    The issue was because of Proxy Settings in the "Internet Options". The Proxy Server was automatically pointing to 127.0.0.1. Disabling Proxy Server in Registry did not help. It still kept automatically pointing to same IP.

    The solution was to add Exception in the Proxy Settings: Open "Internet Options" from control panel or IE. Click "Advanced". Click on "LAN Settings". Click "Advanced" under Proxy Server. In the "Exceptions" box, add the mail server. for example "mail.yourdomain.com"

    Then Outlook worked!

    • -1

  5. Use your active directory dns domain.

    • -2