Autocomplete Function - Strange Behavior

[nmorris510]

Hello --- I have noticed a wierd behavior in OUTLOOK 2003 with regards to
auto-completion of Exchange users in my organization and am wondering if
anyone could tell me why this occurs.

Some background info: 1 Exchange 2003 server (SP1) on a Windows 2003
AD Network.
User workstations: Win XP (SP2) and Windows
2000 (SP4), all using OUTLOOK 2003

Let me state first that I understand how the auto-completion feature works
in terms of the existence of the .NK2 file, deleting unwanted entries as they
appear, resetting the file, etc. I have tried tinkering with these elements
to resolve my issue with no success; it appears to me to be UNRELATED to the
"nuts and bolts" of the feature itself in OUTLOOK.

You see, when a user begins to type in the name of an individual from the
Global Address List, activating the auto-completion process, the result for
some individuals is that the Display Name appears along with a bracketed
alphanumeric code, i.e.,

Jane Smith <B758237B>

while for others the display name appears along with "an alias" in brackets,
i.e.,

John Doe <JOHND>

I say "an alias" here because what is displayed is often NOT the correct
alias for the user account, i.e.

John Doe <JOHND>

--where John Doe's correct alias is actually "JDOE".

This is causing confusion among my users, as the bracketed alias that
displays might well be the correct one for some other user whom they wish to
contact!!

There does not appear to be any discernable pattern to what comes up for
each user. Perhaps Active Directory is causing this???

Has anyone seen this occur in their email systems? My users want to use the
auto-completion feature, but they don't want to deal with the confusing
results!! Please advise.

 

[Randy]

Hmmm,

We have been doing extensive development work on a program that allows for
complete editing of the NK2 Exchange record address. During our dev.
process, we recently had a user with the exact same problem that you
describe. However, because of security issues, she was unable to send me an
NK2 file.

We believe that we know what it happening within the file, but could not
confirm it w/o having a look at the actual file itself. If the problem is
what I think it is, we can most certainly fix it in an automated mode
(meaning that all user's NK2 files can be fixed at point of login).

If you're interested in persuing this further with us (exchange some e-mails
and maybe send us a sample NK2), contact me at sales (at) dcs-imaging.com.

Did you recently perform an Exchange upgrade?

Ran