OL98: Activating Diagnostic Logging (177878)

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SUMMARY

To troubleshoot Internet Mail connections it is useful to log certain aspects of the connection. There is no option in the user interface of Outlook 98 to enable logging for Internet, SMTP, and POP sessions. You can enable logging by editing the Windows Registry.

To interpret the information in these logs see the REFERENCES section below.

Caution: Enabling logging for Internet, SMTP, and POP sessions may capture potentially confidential information, including e-mail passwords, on your hard drive.

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

Enable Logging of Internet Mail Sessions

Enable logging of Internet mail sessions by adding a key to the Windows Registry. To add the key, follow these steps:

On the File menu, click Exit or Exit and Log Off.
Click the Start button and then click Run. Type regedit, and click OK.
Move to and click to select the following key:
Hkey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type the name Logging and press ENTER.
In the Value data window, type 1, and then click OK, and close the Registry Editor.
Start Outlook to create the logs.

After establishing or attempting to establish an Internet Mail session, three files will be created at:

C:\Windows\Temp\Outlook Logging

The files are stored in this folder within a folder that corresponds to the name of the account. There will be a log folder for each account on the computer. The subfolder will contain 3 files for logging various activities:

InetXP.txt logs the Internet session
Pop3log.txt logs mail-retrieval activity
Smtplog.txt logs mail-sending activity

NOTE: This registry key also activates logging for Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP) sessions using the Internet Mail Only installation of Outlook. The log may be found in the same directory path as mentioned above. The log file is named "Imapx.log", where <x> represents the sequence of log files present in the directory. The initial log is "Imap0.log.

REFERENCES

For additional information about interpreting the SMTP and POP3 Logs, please click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

155455 How to Enable and Interpret the Smtp.log File

155515 How to Enable and Interpret the Pop3.log File