Outlook 2007 b2 pulls my mail from exchange once then...

I configured Outlook 2007 b2 to work w/ Exchange and pull my mail but
it seems that when my VPN dies (automatically every so often) i can't
reconnect to Exchange w/o deleting my old Exchange "account" and
creating it again. It goes like this:

1) I add my Exchange account and everything works fine until i walk
away from my computer and VPN dies (overnight for example). At this
point a send/receive throws an error that "the requested operation
cannot be performed on this account". This after i've reconnected VPN
etc. as i normally would and even try restarted Outlook (at which point
it DOES prompt me to login to my Exchange server account which is weird
but i don't get the "connected to Exchange" business i'm used to seeing
in the bottom of 2007).

2) Only way i can retrieve my mail (so far) is to delete the Exchange
account from account manager and recreate it... then everything works
again for a spell (cycle above).

Anyone got any clues? For a test, is there a way to force Outlook 2007
b2 to connect to my Exchange account (and get me back to the state
where i see the "connected to exchange" in the status bar at the
bottom?

HELP!!!

PS as an additional clue i can send mail fine and appear to be
connected to exchange in some way (if i right click on the outlook icon
in the sys tray and go to "connection status" i appear connected though
i don't see the "connected to exchange" message in outlook itself's
status bar).

wrote:
I configured Outlook 2007 b2 to work w/ Exchange and pull my mail but
it seems that when my VPN dies (automatically every so often) i can't
reconnect to Exchange w/o deleting my old Exchange "account" and
creating it again. It goes like this:

1) I add my Exchange account and everything works fine until i walk
away from my computer and VPN dies (overnight for example). At this
point a send/receive throws an error that "the requested operation
cannot be performed on this account". This after i've reconnected VPN
etc. as i normally would and even try restarted Outlook (at which point
it DOES prompt me to login to my Exchange server account which is weird
but i don't get the "connected to Exchange" business i'm used to seeing
in the bottom of 2007).

2) Only way i can retrieve my mail (so far) is to delete the Exchange
account from account manager and recreate it... then everything works
again for a spell (cycle above).

Anyone got any clues? For a test, is there a way to force Outlook 2007
b2 to connect to my Exchange account (and get me back to the state
where i see the "connected to exchange" in the status bar at the
bottom?

HELP!!!