outlook requiring password after exchange reboot

Question

We recently moved from Exchange 2003 to 2010, and have noticed a quirk that is annoying us.

If our exchange server (single server) goes down, ie it gets rebooted, or client loses connectivity (or for example a reboot is done overnight and the users computer is on at the time) they will be prompted to login, and will have to use the full domain\username notation in their username field in order to login again. Either that or reboot outlook.

Its not a big deal, but lots of inexperienced users are confused by this, and some dont realise they need to do something and thus their outlook sits there without receiving emails until they finally notice.

This used to be seamless, what do I have to do to get that back again?

Solution

This is because the Outlook account settings were configured with "Outlook Anywhere" turned on. You can turn it off, if you do not want it.

So that when exchange is rebooted, it will loose connection and restore it once it is back online, and it will not try to connect via https - Outlook Anywhere.

I normally advice my user to restart outlook. If they enter their credential, it will change their connection to exchange from native connection via lan to HTTPS.

Comments

[Ben Pilbrow]

Interestingly enough, I get this in 2003 when we reboot the server - however the OP says their installation used to be seamless. Interesting indeed.

[Sam Cogan]

Is your Exchange server on the same network as you clients, or are you connecting to a remote location?

[RodH257]

all on the same network/physical location, we do sometimes use remote access, but the majority of users don't.

[TessellatingHeckler]

This might be relevant if Outlook Anywhere is set to connect using Basic authentication and they have to enter their password normally when opening Outlook. If Outlook Anywhere is set to use NTLM authentication, it should use their credentials automatically and not prompt for passwords.

[Joshua McKinnon]

I see this behavior even with Outlook Anywhere configured to use NTLM - indeed it shouldn't prompt, but it does (only after an exchange server reboot where connectivity is lost) Users are not normally prompted - ever, not even once - except following a reboot of exchange if Outlook was open during the reboot.

[Sirber]

Outlook Anywhere is activated and uses NTLM, but I disable it for my local domain via GPO. Still, when I reboot the server Outlook asks me for a password.