Microsoft KB Archive/241962

= OL98: "Error in Background Synchronization" Message Is Slow to Display =

Article ID: 241962

Article Last Modified on 12/3/1999

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Outlook 98 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q241962



NOTE: The procedures in this article only apply if you have installed Outlook with the Corporate or Workgroup option. With this option, you can use Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) services. To determine your installation type, click About Microsoft Outlook on the Help menu. If you have the Corporate or Workgroup installation, you see "Corporate or Workgroup".



SYMPTOMS
If a dial-up connection disconnects while you are synchronizing folders, it may take up to 30 minutes for the following error message to appear:

Error in Background synchronization. See detailed log in Deleted Items folder.



CAUSE
This may happen on a mobile computer that has a modem and a network interface card (NIC) installed. While it is connected to the Local Area network (LAN), it may get its Domain Name Server (DNS) and Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) addresses via the Dynamic Host Control Processor(DHCP). The NIC will attempt to connect to the DNS and WINS servers until they time out, even if it is not connected to the network.

Another reason for the delay is that every entry listed under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Exchange Provider\Rpc_Binding_Order

is tried. This adds up to a timeout of 2-3 minutes per folder. These networking settings are responsible for the long timeout values.



RESOLUTION
Making the following configuration changes may help reduce the timeout per folder to less than a second.

 Remove unnecessary DNS entires. The computer will try to connect to any DNS address bound to your network adapter until it times out. For additional information on how to resolve this problem, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

169231 Name Resolution Slow over RAS Connection

 Remove all unnessary entries in the RPC Binding Order list and modify the binding order. For additional information how to do this, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

163576 Changing the RPC Binding Order

If TCP/IP is the only network protocol used, remove all the bindings except "nacn_tcpip"



MORE INFORMATION
The synchronization log file is found in the Deleted Items folder and can be opened with Notepad. It contains the time and status of synchronization, including any error messages.

This is a sample of the synchronization log file.            11:12:00          Outbox 11:16:41         Sent Items 11:20:37         Calendar 11:22:40         Contacts 11:24:16         Drafts 11:26:01         Journal 11:27:44         Notes 11:29:29         Tasks 11:31:12         Folder1 11:33:00         Deleted Items 11:34:40         Views 11:38:25         Saving synchronization log 11:41:48         Synchronization complete

Message box: Error in Background synchronization. See detailed log in Deleted Items folder

Additional query words: 98

Keywords: kbprb KB241962

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