So over the past few days, RPC over HTTP (or Outlook via the Internet) has been somewhat flaky. We found the root cause today, which of course I'll blog about eventually, that's not the point of today's post.
I was trying to figure out why Outlook via the Internet was so flaky. For some people it was connected, and for others it wasn't. The whole thing just seemed very odd.
Anyways, I wanted to share a new Outlook connection troubleshooting tactic with my avid readers in hopes that it saves you a little bit of time.
Outlook 2003 places an icon in the system tray. At first this annoyed me about the new version, but it's definitely growing on me. Especially with this little gem. Personally, I like the fact that you hide outlook when minimized. Clears up some task bar space when you're not doing mail at the present. There are plenty of other features you can enable/disable simply by right-clicking on it.
But what the Outlook folks don't tell you, is about the super-secret hidden menu option. Simply hold CTRL down when you right click and you'll get a new menu option!
Connection Status. Opening this dialog shows all the different connections that Outlook has to your server and what the status of that particular connection. It didn't help me in my particular issue, but I'm sure it will come in handy as a trick in a toolbox for you folks.
May your e-mail never be down.