I have the same problem. I've found this: http://office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?a=1562
I haven't tried yet because Outlook just connected.
It basically say:
In Outlook 2010 go to the Send/Receive tab and click on ‘Work Offline’, wait until the status bar changes from ‘Trying to connect’ to ‘Working offline’. Then click ‘Work Offline’ a second time, Outlook should then try to connect and, hopefully, succeed after a few seconds.
Edit: I tried this a few days ago and it worked like a charm.
