'The RPC server is unavailable' is a simple error that you may face while using Outlook or any other Windows service on a shared network. If you are a new user, you might take this error as a fatal one. But in reality, it’s just a common network error. Sometimes the disturbance is caused just because the File and Printer Sharing is disabled on your system.
However, various other causes lead to RPC Server error, which we will be discussed later in this section. First, let’s have a brief introduction of RPC Server and why RPC Server error is caused. Later we will discuss methods to undo this mere error.
Remote Procedure Call, better known with its short form RPC, is a network-based protocol that connects different Windows processes through the inter-process communication technology. The benefit of RPC is that the processes can share the Windows based resources within the same network more effectively. It can be considered as a request-response protocol, that can be structured using a Client-Server communication model.
The clients gain the ability to connect with the email server more securely through the RPC protocol. The following versions of Exchange Server and Outlook prefers the RPC connection.
A request is initiated by the user, which is then transported to the server via RPC; in return, a response is generated by the server and sent back to the user.
Note: Here, the client system and the server can either be different machines in a network or different processes within a single machine.
RPC plays a crucial role in managing devices across a network. Any disturbance caused within the network can result in RPC Server unavailable error.
Well, there can be several reasons behind this error. Still, the most reported one is the improper configuration or disturbance caused in the connection of peripheral devices like printer or scanner. A connection disturbance can be easily fixed with a few steps.
In this section, we have listed some of the root causes that lead to the RPC Server is unavailable error.
To make RPC functional and get the server issues sorted, you have to complete the following fixes one after the other.
Always make sure that the RPC-related services are running on your machine. Sometimes by default, these services are disabled by the operating system. You can manually change the settings anytime by following these simple steps:
An invalid, corrupt, or modified Windows Registry entry might disable the RPC. Make sure that the registry entries are appropriate. Follow the steps given below to make RPC functional on your machine.
Note: Be careful while making changes to your Windows Registry, any unnecessary changes might affect your system’s functionality.
-ipconfig/flushdns
-ipconfig/registerdns
-ipconfig/release
-ipconfig/renew
-netsh winsock reset
Once you have executed all the commands, reboot your PC and launch Outlook.
Getting an RPC Server error is common for Windows-based Outlook users, especially when they are working in a network environment. RPC Server Error is a network-based error that not only appears in Outlook but other Windows services as well. Here, we have discussed various methods to fix it.