Microsoft KB Archive/833655

Knowledge Base

"Cannot connect to web service" error message when you try to open an Office Solution Accelerator for Proposals document

Article ID: 833655

Article Last Modified on 12/3/2007

---

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Proposals
• Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0
• Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0

---

SYMPTOMS

When you try to edit a Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Proposals document in Microsoft Office Word 2003, you may receive the following error message in the Document Actions task pane:

Cannot connect to web service http://server:port/MSProposals.asmx

CAUSE

This problem may occur if the application pool identity is a domain account.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, try the following:

• If the Microsoft SQL Server where the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Configuration Database or Windows SharePoint Services Content Database is stored is on a different computer than the computer that is running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services, the computer account identity (domain\computer_name$) for the computer that has Windows SharePoint Services installed must have access to the Windows SharePoint Services database.
  
  To resolve this problem, add the domain\computer_name$ account as a logon for the SQL Server, and then make it a user for the Office Solution Accelerator for Proposals database.
• The Web service requires access to information through the Windows SharePoint Services object model. Therefore, it has to run under the same application pool as your Windows SharePoint Services Web site.
  
  To resolve this problem, in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, change the Web service's site to run under the same application pool as Windows SharePoint Services.
  
  To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, and then click Run.
  2. In the Open box, type inetmgr, and then click OK.
  3. In the IIS Manager, expand your server.
  4. Expand Web Sites.
  5. Right-click Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Proposals, and then click Properties.
  6. On the Home Directory tab, change the Application pool box to the same pool that is used by your Windows SharePoint Services Web site.
  7. Click OK to close the Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Proposals Properties dialog box.
  8. On the File menu, click Exit to close the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager dialog box.
• If the application pool that the Web service and Windows SharePoint Services run has the identity of a domain user, IIS authentication will fail. With Integrated Authentication turned on, you must use either Microsoft Windows NT Challenge/Response (NTLM) authentication or Kerberos authentication.
  
  For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  324274 How to: Configure IIS Web site authentication in Windows Server 2003

  217098 Basic overview of Kerberos user authentication protocol in Windows 2000

  
  
  If you set the application pool identity to a local account, Negotiate uses NTLM because Kerberos is not available for local accounts. If you set the application pool identity to a domain account, Negotiate uses Kerberos authentication. Kerberos authentication fails.
  
  In IIS, the metabase key NTAuthenticationProviders controls the order that NTLM or Kerberos is used.
  
  To use a domain user for the Windows SharePoint Services application pool, set IIS to use NTLM authentication. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. On your Windows SharePoint Services server-based computer, click Start, and then click Run.
  2. In the Open box, type CMD, and then click OK.
  3. Change to the C:\InetPub\AdminScripts folder.
  4. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:

     cscript adsutil.vbs set w3svc/NTAuthenticationProviders "NTLM"

  5. Restart IIS.

Keywords: kberrmsg kbprb KB833655

---

Send feedback to Microsoft

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.