Help! - automatic reply doesn't work...

[Victor Bien]

and the on-line documentation doesn't give the right help.

Outlook on a client machine was set to send an automatic reply to any
sender saying that the manager is away on holidays. The program works
through the Exchange server on a Windows 2003 server (as required). The
version of the Exchange Server is 6.## running on server 2003 R2.

I am away from the computers as I write this but I also configured
the Exchange Server to do auto replies.

Sending a test message to the manager's e-mail user name as
configured does not produce an auto reply as it's supposed to. I think
the message would arrive in the Outlook inbox - another test message
requested from someone else arrived in the inbox but I don't think an
auto-reply was sent either.

Does Outlook have to be running for the system to work?

The on-line documentation at Microsoft talks about Outlook and the
Exchange server separately but I would expect some interaction between
the two but there is not a breath about this aspect in the docs. There
is a suggestion to "contact your network administrator" about certain
types of problems but the trouble is **I am the network administrator**!!

Is it because the linkage between Outlook and the Exchange server not
being right the cause of the non-performance?

I'd appreciate comments from those who know how this system works and
how to get it to work.

TIA

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Does Outlook have to be running for the system to work?

It depends on how the rule was set up. If it was an out-of-office rule or a have-server-reply rule, Outlook does not need to be running.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP P/I]]

You have the Exchange Server configured to allow automatic replies to the
Internet, however, your automatic reply appears to be an Out Of Office
message. Have you also configured the Exchange Server to allow Out Of
Office responses to the Internet as well? There is a seperate checkbox for
OOFs.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Still Cadillacin' - www.badnewsbluesband.com

 

[Victor Bien]

You have the Exchange Server configured to allow automatic replies to the
Internet, however, your automatic reply appears to be an Out Of Office
message. Have you also configured the Exchange Server to allow Out Of
Office responses to the Internet as well? There is a seperate checkbox for
OOFs.

Hal

OK I'm now writing this from a client next to the server box on a KVM
Switch.

In Exchange's System Manager window | Connector | Small Business SMTP
connector all the details are filled in to send messages to the
company's ISP's SMTP server. Under Global | Internet Message Formats |
Defaults double click | Advanced there is allow "Out of Office
responses". There is no radio button relating to the internet.

Auto reply doesn't work. What am I missing out on?

Victor

 

[Victor Bien]

and the on-line documentation doesn't give the right help.

Outlook on a client machine was set to send an automatic reply to any
sender saying that the manager is away on holidays. The program works
through the Exchange server on a Windows 2003 server (as required). The
version of the Exchange Server is ver 6.6 running on server 2003 R2.

[original details cut for brevity]

I went to check if Outlook would actually send any messages so I sent
a test message to my personal address. Nothing arrived! If it can't
send composed messages then I'd imagine it couldn't send an auto-reply
either! The sent message appears in the sent folder.

I had to reconfigure Outlook to manually check connection because
contrary to my simple-minded expectation when set to auto check it would
conclude there is no connection and work offline! That is odd since the
client has a continuous LAN connection to the SBS 2003 and can fetch
internet web pages.

I just spent more hours on the client and the server checking and
rechecking my settings, typographical errors and can't find anything out
of order. MTA was not working but after quite a bit of digging around I
ascertained that that is the correct default state for Exchange ver 6.5
under SBS 2003 SP2.

Any tips as to what I've overlooked?

 

[Victor Bien]

and the on-line documentation doesn't give the right help.

Outlook on a client machine was set to send an automatic reply to any
sender saying that the manager is away on holidays. The program works
through the Exchange server on a Windows 2003 server (as required). The
version of the Exchange Server is 6.5 running on server 2003 R2.

[original details cut for brevity]

I went to check if Outlook would actually send any messages so I sent
a test message to my personal address. Nothing arrived! If it can't
send composed messages then I'd imagine it couldn't send an auto-reply
either! The sent message appears in the sent folder.

I had to reconfigure Outlook to manually check connection because
contrary to my simple-minded expectation when set to auto check it would
conclude there is no connection and work offline! That is odd since the
client has a continuous LAN connection to the SBS 2003 and can fetch
internet web pages.

I just spent more hours on the client and the server checking and
rechecking my settings, typographical errors and can't find anything out
of order. MTA was not working but after quite a bit of digging around I
ascertained that that is the correct default state for Exchange ver 6.5
under SBS 2003 SP2.

Any tips as to what I've overlooked?