Out of Office Assistant - Autoreply for one domain only

[Leon Werenka]

I like the autoreply feature since it manages the fact that one message is
sent out per unique email address received. The problem is that it responds
to every email address. My goal is to send the autoreply to my colleagues at
the same domain but not to others like autoresponder addresses, trade
magazine emails, and of course, spam. I went through the help and know that I
am able to set up a filter to reply only to one domain, but it appears that
the autoreply feature will still reply to all email if the "Out of Office"
button is selected. Is this the case?
The other issue I see with doing a reply to emails from one domain, is that
if more than one Outlook client is set up to reply based on the domain
filter, won't this create a mail storm if the rule fires on every email
coming in that matches the domain, instead of just once like the autoreply
does?
Is there a way to set this up correctly? What I really need is a text box
with the autoreply message that allows me to enter the domains that I want
the autoreply to work for (very similar to how you specify which domains do
not have to go through the proxy server in IE network setup).
Thanks,
Leon

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello [MVP - Outlook]]

You are correct in most of what you've said. The Exchange administrator for
your network can make sure that automatic replies are only sent to recipients
within your organization and not to the Internet (in fact, that's the default
in Exchange), if that would help you. Otherwise, an auto-reply rule set up
on your machine only would reply to everyone and more than once, possibly
resulting in endless mail loops...also, you'd need to leave Outlook running
on your machine all the time.

If your Exchange admin won't disable automatic replies to the Internet or if
that is not good enough for you, there are some other ideas and links to 3rd
party message management tools here: http://www.slipstick.com/addins/auto.asp

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

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