Outlook Over Http Through Vmc

[hodgm]

Hi,

We currently use outlook over http in many various applications including users over home broadband connections, public Wifi, other mobile broadband prodviders etc...

We have recently got a Dell E4200 with built in mobile broadband card and are using it with a Vodafone sim.

We can use it to connect (through the Vodafone sim) to the internet fine using either Vodafone Mobile Connect or the built in Dell control point software.
We can also connect to our VPN and then through outlook to our Exchange server fine.

However if before connecting the VPN we try to use outlook over HTTP or HTTPS it just stops on "Trying to connect to microsoft exchange server"
It occasionally asks for the users username and password as expected with outlook over HTTP but still doesn't connect.
I can manage to navigate to our webmail site and log in fine using HTTP or HTTPS through the sim connection but outlook over HTTP just fails.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to resolve this?

I have already tried reinstalling VMC using a custom install and removing vodafones "Network optimization tools" as suggested in another post but still no joy

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Cheers,

Mark

[techmind]

Hi,

I don't know anything about the details of their implementation, but I can confirm that I can connect to my employers MS Exchange Server / Outlook Web Access using a secure ( https ) connection from Vodafone mobile broadband - without any VPN.

My employer doesn't support non-secure (http) access - but I wouldn't be at all surprised if you had problems as Vodafone has 'transformation' proxies on all non-encrypted http traffic which cannot be bypassed and cause a number of compatibility problems (including corruption of .zip and .gz files, and reformatting of images), and may be implicated in serious web-traffic slow-down at times of heavy loading of Vodafone systems (as mere users we can't be 100% sure, but there's circumstantial evidence).


Try https access to your Outlook web access and see if that works. (The proxies can't mess with the content of https traffic.)

You could also try the Firefox browser (maybe also with the "no-cache" headers plug-in) which in some circumstances is reported to mitigate some of the proxying issues.


FWIW my web-browsing with Voda mobile bb has had many periods of being abnormally slow/faulty for the past week or two. I've no idea whether this is a local issue or whether it's more widespread on the VF system.
What's your other web-browsing like?
Have you ever been able to connect to your email system with Vodafone, either in the past, or eg early in the morning when loads are lighter?

[Retired-Jon_V]

Hi hodgm,

I'm afraid this is a completely new issue to me, so I don't really have a clear idea of where to start - however, if Techmind is able to connect over https without problems, this would be something worth trying.

Can you try connecting over https instead of http and let us know if this resolves or changes the issue in any way?

Jon

eForum Team

[hodgm]

Hi hodgm,

I'm afraid this is a completely new issue to me, so I don't really have a clear idea of where to start - however, if Techmind is able to connect over https without problems, this would be something worth trying.

Can you try connecting over https instead of http and let us know if this resolves or changes the issue in any way?

Jon

eForum Team

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the thoughts so far, I feel I may have miscommunicated things slightly.

I can connect fine to outlook web access without VPN through both HTTP, HTTPS and a number of browsers. However we use an option in the actual program Microsoft Outlook (version 2007 athough tried 2003). In Tools, Account Settings, Change, More Settings, Connection there is an option to "Connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP"

We use this on all our clients as most are remote and it works fine through a variety of wifi broadband and mobile broadband options but seems to freeze when using a vodafone sim on both HTTP and HTTPS? (I have tried this very same laptop remotely on my broadband and it works so know the client is set up correctly)

I appreciate it is a rare more specialist problem so any help would be great.

Cheers again,

Mark

[Retired-George]

Hi hodgm,

Hmmm, this does sound like a difficult one

I know from previous experience that using Outlook over HTTP can work with VMC as I've accessed my email in this way when connected with a USB modem previously. I've asked around on this one and the consensus seems to be that it may be to do with how the security is setup on your exchange server itself. I'm afraid I can't be any more specific than that though as I've never setup an exchange server so wouldn't know where to begin .

I'm sorry I can't be of any more help than that but I'm sure one of our more Techy users on here may be able to point you in the right direction.

George
eForum Team