OL2000: How to Activate Diagnostic Logging

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

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.

How To Enable Logging of Internet Mail Sessions

You can enable logging of Internet mail sessions by adding a key to the Windows Registry:

1. Quit Outlook.
2. Click Start, click Run, and in the Open box, type regedit, and click OK.
3. Move to, and click to select the following key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
5. Type the name Logging, and then press ENTER.
6. In the Value data box, type 1, click OK, and then close the Registry Editor.
7. Start Outlook to create the logs.

After you establish or attempt to establish an Internet Mail session, three files will be created. The location of these files depends on the operating system you are running.

• Microsoft Windows 98 and Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me)
  C:\Windows\Temp\Outlook Logging
• Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows 2000, and Microsoft Windows XP
  C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp\Outlook Logging\ProfileName

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

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: