outlook 2003 to Exchange 2013 via OWA.

**mikesw** · May 24, 2015

I have windows XP SP3 Home edition and Outlook 2003 Pro SP3.

I'm trying to connect to the company exchange server (outsourced) that is exchange 2013 with OWA.

I can log in via the OWA and a browser.

I can create IMAP and POP3 connections using outlook 2003 to the exchange 2013.

However, I can't connect to the exchange server 2013 by creating an exchange server account on outlook 2003.

I can't connect through activesync 4.5 using outlook connector but can connect to a msoft outlook email account.

Since the prototocol is RPC over https I had to enable the RPC encryption value in the registry manually although another website said to use the gpedit.msc group policy to set the encryption. It doesn't set the same registry value. Since Windows XP didn't come with the gpedit.msc, I downloaded it from Msoft since it is the same one used for windows XP Pro. I also had to get the Outlk11.adm or the newer office 2003 adm templates for SP3 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=9035, Under "user configuration" -> "Administrative Templates" -> "Microsoft Office Outlook 2003" -> "Outlook 2003 RPC Encryption" -> "Exchange Settings" there is an entry for "Enagle RPC Encryption" which I enabled.

See link

http://www.kuhnline.com/index.php?id=51

You could try to configure static ports in outllook, alhtough I didn't try doing this.

https://support2.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;833799

Here's some more outlook 2003 debugging

http://windowsitpro.com/networking/troubleshooting-rpc-over-http-connections

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/833401

http://forums.isaserver.org/m_50231500/mpage_4/tm.htm

http://www.msexchange.org/articles-tutorials/exchange-server-2003/mobility-client-access/outlookrpchttp.html

when I try to setup an outlook 2003 exchange account and run "outlook /rpcdiag" on the windows run line I see in the diag window that it establishes a connection but disconnects and retries/restores the connection every few minutes. It doesn't get the mailbox names downloaded. I've also enabled outlook 2003 logging, but haven't been able to read the ETL files it creates.

Thus, to debug this I've installed openssl, to get the certificates needed to decrypt SSL using netmon 3.4 from msoft or wireshark. I then capture the communications with the exchange 2013/OWA but I can't get the certs to decode the data packets, nor get the network parsing language to mark the Imap, pop3 or exchange transmission,to see what is going on during communications with the server.

Did anybody use the network tools to find out why the server disconnects? Outlook 2010 on a windows 8 machine will connect either with exchange setup, Imap or pop3 but I can't leave my email account on friends machine. Although I have mine working with imap and pop3, I'd still like to understand why the exchange setup isn't.

During setup of exchange on outlook 2003 it runs the "autodiscover" on the server website, but mine won't autodiscover so I had to enter the FQDN name of my server by getting the equivalent using the MSosft's exchange server test website.

http://serverfault.com/questions/119445/connecting-outlook-or-activesync-to-outlook-web-access

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb232838%28EXCHG.80%29.aspx

outlook 2003 not doing autodiscover or maybe it should...per weblink:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/exchange/en-US/1e0b6c21-b767-4f6b-a9ee-ac059ce4b6ca/autodiscover-with-outlook-2003-sp3-exchange-2003-sp2?forum=exchangesvrclientslegacy

To get around the autodiscover problem with port 135 opened in the firewall, go here.

https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/

All my IMAP, pop3, exchange ports are correct thru the firewall.

Edited May 24, 2015 by mikesw