Address Book Download Issues (Vista machines)

Let me see if this sounds familiar...  Address Book service is configured correctly, and my Windows 2000/XP machines have no problem downloading the address, BUT my Windows Vista machines do. Below is a brief explanation of steps you can take to resolve the issues for Vista machines without tearing apart your server hosting ABS.

The OC client will inherit the proxy server configuration that is used by IE and cache the Abs/Ext/f-0901e.lsabs at the proxy and locally on the Windows client. The OC client configuration for automatic DNS lookup and manual TLS configuration can render different results in the HTTP URL that is used for accessing the ABS virtual folders. So there can be several different items that come into play that may cause issue with the creation or update of the  galcontact.db file on the OC client.

The galcontacts.db file is located at %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application data\Microsoft\Communicator folder. Signing out of OC 2007 and moving or deleting this file then signing back into OC 2007 should import a new lsdabs file and a new galcontact.db should be created. For the Windows 2000/XP machines the GalContacts.db file will be present.  Below are some steps to help resolve the address book download issue for Vista machines.

Procedure

Note:  You could dive in further and start a network capture from the Vista machine while it signs however for simplicity lets just walk through these steps to see if they fix the issue.

1. Make sure this symptom is the same on all of your Vista clients.
2. Flush DNS by using ipconfig /flushdns on the client.
3. Verify within IE that 'Check for server certificate revocation* is disabled.  To do this go to IE > Advanced > Security section > Check for sever certificate revocation*.   Deselect the check box.
4. Now  close Internet Explorer, close Communicator (Completely -- signout and close application)
5. Start Communicator| Signin
6. If your not presented with an error or the warning stating an issue accessing the Address Book, go to the %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application data\Microsoft\Communicator and verify that a GalContacts.db file exists.  If it does exist, GREAT! Your done.   If not then continue with the rest of the procedure.
7. Within IE add the Address Book URL that users will download the AB files.  IE > Internet Options > Security > Trusted Sites > Add the URL to trusted sites (ex.  https://absserver.company.com)
8. Repeat steps 4-6
9. If you still cannot download the address book try, move to step 10.
10. Verify that User Access Control is Off on the and then repeat steps 4-6.