They say that the simple things in life are often the best. (Well, I don't know that I'd call Liz Hurley "simple", but I think Warney's doing quite ok there...)
And sometimes you can't see the simple things for all the complexity that drives them. I spent around 3 hours today trying to work out why a client couldn't access their Public Folders (SBS 2003) using Outlook 2003 on any machines and spent a bit of time checking PF permissions on the server, then looked at OWA that was working as expected and left them using OWA for their Shared Contacts (all that was in the PFs, luckily) until I could look at the system again tonight.
Well, I looked at everything I could find - including restoring from a backup - no change - and creating the Public Folders fresh - again, no change - and then when chatting to a colleague/mate online, I typed out the error message (the one I'd read so many times today) and it dawned on me: Outlook was set to "Work Offline". FFS.
I was looking at the server because at least 2 machines were having the same issue. Now, I don't know what would have changed (and this client doesn't "fiddle" on their server, thankfully) that set everyone to "Work Offline", but at least the fix has been found.
In the mean time, I learned a new tool - MFCMAPI from http://mfcmapi.codeplex.com/ - which is quite interesting. So, all wasn't lost (besides the fact that the client is good to go again in the morning).
Regards,
The Outspoken Wookie
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