The action cannot be completed. The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.

This often occurs when attaching a new Outlook client to an Exchange mailbox in the mail control panel interface. This error is so common that Microsoft wrote a handy Knowledge Base article to address the issue: (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927481).

However, the article doesn’t touch on what – in my experience – is the most common cause of this error message: improperly configured software firewalls.

Now if you have a smart enough firewall, it will prompt you to either allow or deny access between Microsoft Outlook and the remote server when Outlook attempts to contact the Exchange server for the first time. Many firewalls, including every version of Microsoft’s Windows firewall I’ve used, will not prompt you or provide any indication that the firewall is blocking the connection.

Of course this will only fix the problem if your DNS is configured correctly (which you can check with nslookup or by pinging the server), and you know that your Exchange server is functioning properly (which you can verify by using Outlook Web Access in your browser, or by testing the mailbox on another user’s workstation).

I know it sounds stupid; I mean how could you possibly forget something so exciting and potentially revolutionary? I’ll tell you how. Because of everything else in the world that is seemingly there only to distract you and rob you of your productivity. Things like traffic and morning radio, and the fact that you didn’t bring along a pencil and notebook when you had that epiphany as you were jogging this morning.

No worries. I’ll bet your cell phone is nearby.

Chances are, your secretary is busy updating her MySpace profile so there’s no point in calling her. Instead, we’re going to call Jott.

Jott is an online transcription service that uses a combination of automated systems and human interaction to transcribe your voice messages, so the finished transcriptions are remarkably accurate. You call a toll-free number, record a voice message, and Jott converts it into text that can be sent via email, SMS (phone text message), or posted to a blog.

You can set up a contact list and send transcribed messages to a single recipient, a group, or to yourself. You can even schedule reminders that can be sent to your email or back to your phone at the specified time. There are a ton of other ways to use Jott so instead reciting them all here, I’ll just link to Jott’s How To page.

As is the trend with Web 2.0 products, Jott is currently in public beta, but it feels very much like a finished and polished product. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Google snap them up and sit on the technology like they did with Grand Central and dozens of other Internet products. Time will tell.

Incidentally, Jott is free, so don’t let any more of those good ideas get away.