Exchange 5.5 OWA vs Outlook 2003

ASP 0115

ASP 0115

error ‘ASP 0115’

Unexpected error

/exchange/USA/root.asp

A trappable error occurred in an external object. The script cannot continue running.

So, call me crazy, but I’ve been running an Exchange 5.5 server a home for a while without issues.  It’s perfect for a single user, I can keep up to 16GB worth of email on there, and best of all I can use real email clients like Outlook (or is it LookOut!?).  Anyways I noticed something weird which is that Outlook 2003 always is unsure if the server is there, and I have to tell it that it’s OK to connect.  Also once the Outlook 2003 client connects, it kills OWA, giving me these weird ASP 0115 Unexpected errors.

googling around for a fix was a bit futile, and I’d largely written off OWA, as in this day & age, who really wants some ASP 3.0 app?  But for some reason, today was going to be the day to fix it, as I don’t have Outlook on my macbook air.

So with the Outlook 2003 clue in mind I finally found KB-818709, aka “Outlook Web Access stops responding when you try to access a mailbox on an Exchange 5.5 computer”.

As the cause states:

This problem occurs when you try to access a user account that was previously accessed by a client computer that is running Microsoft Office Outlook 2003.

Outlook 2003 adds a fourth entry to the PR_FREEBUSY_ENTRYIDS property. PR_FREEBUSY_ENTRYIDS is a multi-valued MAPI property that is stored on the Inbox folder. CDO expects three entries. The unexpected fourth entry causes heap corruption that causes OWA or the third-party program to stop responding.

Well how about that?

So with the hotfix in hand, and a reboot, it now works perfectly, like it did back in 1997.  And the best part is that it works great in Chrome.

And for anyone crazy like me with Exchange 5.5, remember to install SP4, and of course the KB829436 hotfix!

9 thoughts on “Exchange 5.5 OWA vs Outlook 2003

  1. Didn’t Exchange 5.5 come with a DOS Outlook client? I’m curious if that client works with later versions of Exchange. There isn’t much info (or a download) of the DOS client online, or the Windows 3.1x version for that matter!

    • The only DOS client I have came with Exchange 4.. I had it working with 2000, and I think it connected to 2003, but service packs killed it.

      I’m pretty sure you can get the client out of the Exchange 4 service packs….

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