When using Outlook in a corporate environment end users may experience long delays and sometimes even timeouts when sending and receiving email.

Sometimes the long delays or timeouts are related to the opening of large attachments received. And because the file size of the email attachment is too large, the email message cannot be sent or received within the time limits configured for the server. This can result in multiple unsuccessful email send attempts.

Then, while waiting for a large attachment to open, end users will get busy with other tasks and begin to open up other applications which will themselves slow the system down even further. Moving windows may take longer and refreshes will be slow. The worst case is when the users’ last resort – CTRL+ALT+DEL key sequence – is itself slow to open.

Some error message codes that may be displayed include: “0×8004210A” “0×800CCC0B” or “0×8004210B”. If the Post Office Protocol, version 3 (POP3), is being used then when sending or receiving email a user may see an Internet Security Warning dialog box appear accompanied with an error message such as:

Task ’smtp_server_name – Sending and Receiving’ reported error (0×8004210A): ‘The operation timed out waiting for a response from the receiving (POP) server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).’

Or,

Task ’smtp_server_name – Sending and Receiving’ reported error (0×8004210A): ‘The operation timed out waiting for a response from the sending (SMTP) server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).’

If the system is still running Outlook 2002 then there is a hotfix available for it in the Outlook Post-Service Pack 2 Hotfix Package.

Other reasons for getting the 0×8004210A error code can include:
• The connection to the Internet, or the network, or to your mail server is temporarily unavailable.
• The mail server domain name is not correct, has not been registered, or has not had sufficient time to propagate through the Internet (routers).
• Account settings are incorrect.
• A user profile in Outlook is damaged or corrupted.
• An email component on the POP3 server is damaged or corrupted.
• There might be a conflict with the configuration settings of the Anti -Virus software in use.
• Outlook itself might be corrupted.
• Outlook may have been accidentally removed from the system.
• The firewall settings may have been changed.

Some possible fixes include:

1. If you have recently purchased a new domain or transferred your domain to a new hosting site, or made changes to your domain’s nameservers, then you should wait at least twenty-four hours before trying to connect to your servers as changes can sometimes take as long as twenty-four hours to permeate across a sufficient number of routers (tables) to make the connection possible.

2. If changes were made to the IP address or domain names then verify that the correct changes were made.

3. Server time out limits can be increased if necessary to accommodate large file attachment sizes.

An administrator can increase the server time out limit for Outlook by following the steps outlined below:

1. From the Tools menu, click Email Accounts.
2. Click View or change existing email accounts.
3. Click Next.
4. Locate the email account that is being affected and then click Change.
5. Select More Settings
6. Select the Advanced tab.
7. A slider control for the time duration for email server connections will be displayed. Adjust your server timeout value as appropriate for your needs.
8. Select OK or hit the Enter key.
9. Select Next
10. Click on Finish to save your changes.

Additionally if Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 is running in a heavily loaded environment that is also using Outlook Web Access then you may experience timeouts or service stops related to the Microsoft Exchange Information Store. If this is the case then you can expect to find messages such as the following in the System log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7011
Description: Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the MSExchangeIS service.

For more information can be found in the Microsoft Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

An administrator can also take steps to streamline their Outlook/Exchange environment by identifying those features that are not being used such as calendar, tasks, journaling, etc. and then have end users run Outlook in Internet Only (IMO) mode instead of the Corporate/Workgroup mode.