George Trachier had another idea, "I had a similar problem and fixed it by turning off the ability to work off line and deleting the OST file. Rebooting the machine and then re-enable the ability to work off line and recreated the OST file."

One of the more interesting approaches came from Enid Long. This tactic might work for a variety of Exchange problems, so it's worth remembering: "I had the problem for months with many of our users. I tried just about everything; I finally figured out that Active Directory likes to shake hands with the computer you are using for email.

"Here's what I've done. Log on locally to the computer. Add the computer to your Active Directory domain. Restart the computer. Log on to the computer locally, open the Outlook Client; you will notice that the email opens up much faster. Close Outlook. Remove the computer from the Active Directory domain. Restart."

Enid reports, "This works most of the time, on occasion I still get users that have the Requesting Data from the Exchange Server box and we have to add and remove the domain again."

These are all great suggestions and you should hang onto this particular tip in case you run across this problem again. Just because Geoff's approach fixed our variant of computing weirdness doesn't mean that these other approaches won't work for you. If you find any of these help you out, let us know and we'll share your experiences. Once again, just pop off a note to david@ZATZ.com.

Next week, Diane will be back with another great tip.

The lovely and talented David Gewirtz is the Editor-in-Chief of all the ZATZ publications. Deep in his heart, he lusts after owning his own aircraft carrier (we generally don't ask, and you probably shouldn't either). Should you dare, El Honcho is reachable at david@ZATZ.com and you can get an insight into his darker side by visiting his personal Web site at http://www.gewirtz.com.