SBS2003 and Virtual PC 2004

[kmurdock]

Hi,

I'm an applications person and don't know much about the fine points of networking. OK, I don't know much about the broad points, either. All I want to do is be able to test my Word macros and templates in a networked environment. So, armed with a laptop and a dangerous lack of information, I turned my laptop into an SBS2003 server, including Exchange. I know I did some of this right because if I log onto the server as a user (with Admin privileges), I can run Outlook and send messages to another user. I've also made one user a delegate of another and accessed a different mailbox via VBA.

However, there is a MAPI issue when running Outlook and Exchange on the same box. The software alerts me to this and up until now I've been able to avoid MAPI by working with the Outlook Object Model. But because what I'm doing with OOM is so much slower than using CDO and MAPI, I've started making changes to my VBA code, and using Redemption to avoid the security warning. (That's why I'm beating my head against a rock pursuing this, in case that's the first question you have.)

The bottom line is that I'd like to set up my laptop to be both network and client, using Virtual PC 2004. I've installed a VPC with Windows XP (both OSs are all patched), and managed to log in. At least I think I am. I set the VPC network connection to local, and gave it an IP address. I can see the computer from the server management program, so something's happened. But I can't access Exchange from the VPC -- I get the message that Exchange must be running and connected when I try to open Outlook and resolve my user name -- which was the whole point of this project. Exchange is running -- it's listed as running in Services.

This may be so simple that no one had ever asked a question about it, or I'm so ignorant that I wouldn't know an answer if I bumped into it. I have the strong feeling that it's about IP addresses and/or something I haven't set up correctly on the server. Clearly I'm missing something that I just haven't the knowledge to see, so I'm humbly asking for some guidance now or my forehead will never heal. Or point me to written info on the internet. Anything.

Thanks MUCH in advance, <img src=/S/bananas.gif border=0 alt=bananas width=33 height=35>
Kim

[boecherer]

I'm assuming you installed Windows XP Pro so that you are logging in and connecting to the domain? If not, then Outlook won't be able to login since you're not logging into the domain.

If you do have XP Pro installed are you actually logging into the domain? And what DNS are you using? The DNS should be the SBS Servers IP address so that it can properly direct you to the Exchange server. If your DNS is pointing to an outside DNS it sometimes works, but it can take a long time to login and might have trouble finding the server and Exchange.