Unable to Connect MS Outlook 2007/2010 To Exchange Server 2003: “Your Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable”

Barclay Tcareva

Updated On - October 19, 2022

Most organizations use Microsoft Outlook in conjunction with Exchange Server for its email-based communication. Being a powerful server-side application, Exchange server is mainly used with client-side applications (MS Outlook most often) to provide email-based collaborative communication to conveniently access the data from anywhere, when connected to the internet. The best part about this Exchange Server is its online storage facility that allows you to store their complete mailbox data (such as emails, contacts, tasks, notes etc.) and can easily share with others as well.

PROBLEM

However, sometimes Exchange Server may possibly show connectivity errors as well when you try connecting MS Outlook 2007 to Exchange Server. The below mentioned is one such error message that you may encounter while configuring Outlook profile.

Error message:

“Your Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable”

Such error message tends to appear when you have manually configured the Outlook profile.
Otherwise, if your Outlook profile has been automatically configured, it will display an error message like:

Error Message:

“The action cannot be completed. The connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable. Your network adapter does not have a default gateway.”

However, coming back to the manual configuration error message: “Your Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable”, such error message is displayed when you are trying to connect your existing Outlook profile to Exchange Server and at that time you mislay the default gateway network setting.

CAUSE:

Such Exchange Server connectivity error (like “Your Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable”) may generate in a case, when your Outlook 2007 client-application does not have configured a default gateway.

RESOLUTION

Manual Fixations – DO IT YOURSELF

Note: Before implementing this manual method, you should read it carefully. In this manual technique, it is described to modify the registry – but it should be done meticulously as an incorrect registry modification may create serious woes. It is recommended to take the back up of your registry before modification for an extra protection. If in case any problem appears, restore the original registry.

If you are facing trouble in configuring your default gateway for your settings then you should try appending a DWORD value to the registry subkey. Rename that DWORD value as DefConnectOpts by following this sub key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\RPC

See how you can fix it for yourself. Implement the following steps on your Outlook 2007 and 2010.

For Outlook 2007

1. Go to Start and click Run
2. Write regedit in the Open box.
3. Click OK.
4. Find and then go the below mentioned subkey:
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\RPC

5. On to Edit menu, go to New
6. Click DWORD Value and then accurately write DefConnectOpts,
7. Press ENTER button.
8. Right-click DefConnectOpts and Click Modify.
9. Go to the Value data box and Enter 0
10. Click OK.

For Outlook 2010

1. Click Start and then click Run.
2. Write regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
3. Find and then go the below mentioned subkey:
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\RPC

4. On the Edit menu, go to New,
5. Click DWORD Value and then accurately write DefConnectOpts.
6. Press ENTER to proceed
7. Right-click DefConnectOpts, & then click Modify.
8. Go to the Value data box, enter 0
9. Click OK.

Exit Registry Editor and Restart your system to verify that it works successfully.

However, if you are still facing connectivity error issues, then it is recommended to use third-party exchange recovery software.

Software Fixations – Automatically Fix it for you

RecoveryFix for Exchange Server Recovery is a powerful software solution to fix all Exchange Server issues like corrupt header information, Exchange dirty shutdown, deleted mailboxes and emails, JET errors etc. within a matter of minutes. This exchange recovery tool quickly repairs and rebuilds corrupt database files (EDB) and even allows users to migrate them to Outlook PST format. You may analyze the tool’s functionality from a closer perspective by downloading the trial version for free of cost.