I decided that I would once again brave running the PDC Windows 7 build on my Toshiba M700. Unlike last time where I installed the 64bit version I went with the x86 version. Last time there were all sorts of issues such as IE8 crashing, drivers not installing and worst of all I couldn’t get Outlook to sync with our hosted exchange server.
After installing Windows 7, Office etc everything seemed to be going well. IE8 was working, most hardware seems to be working but I was still not able to get Outlook to play ball with our hosted exchange. nsquared uses myhostedsolution for our hosted exchange solution. I still think they’re the best hosting provider out there with unlimited mailbox size for only $10US a month. That said, I doubted that they would offer me support, knowing I’m running Windows 7.
I remembered that Craig Pringle, one of the regulars at (and founder of) Sydney Geek Coffee, also uses myhostedsolution. Craig has also been doing a number of posts around the new features of Windows 7 so I figured he’d probably know the work around to get Outlook to work. One quick phone call later and sure enough I’m up and running. We’re not sure whether this is a problem specific to Windows 7 as Craig has seen the issue under Vista but we do know that the work around seems to work:
Issue:
When setting up a connection to myhostedsolution you normally just enter your email address and password and hit Next. Outlook goes off and autodiscovers all the settings it needs to connect. I seem to recall it prompts you for your username and password once under normal circumstances where you again just enter your email address as you username. The issue I was seeing is that it repeatedly prompts for a username and password – as if the credentials are wrong.
Resolution
myhostedsolution normally allows you to authenticate using either your email address or your actual domain username eg netplexityuser_name. If you use myhostedsolution you can find out your domain username by logging into their management console, going to the relevant User properties and looking at the bottom of the main page. Using the domain username while configuring Outlook works a treat and I’m once again connected to our hosted exchange (syncing still in progress).
[Thanks Craig!!!]