reply from correct address with a twist

[Johnathon Wright]

SUMMARY

I have several email addresses on the same server.
Previously, I just checked all addresses. I would like to
set up aliases so that I only have to check one account.
However, it is important that a reply to one address not
come from another address. I can not figure it out in
Outlook and in outlook express 6, unchecking "include
this account when receiving mail or synchronizing" does
not respond from the address to which the mail was sent.
Checking this box works.

LONG VERSION

Like many of my fellow employees, I have email addresses
at several different domains on the same server.

(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
etc., etc.

Because this happened sort of slowly, I was just adding a
new pop3 mailbox for everyone as we got new domains. Now,
I would like to set up aliases, and have everyone just
check one address for all their incoming mail. We aren't
experiencing slowness yet, but reducing server load can't
be bad for you...

Anyway, I kept this as my main email address:

(e-mail address removed)

and I set up aliases:

(e-mail address removed) -> (e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed) -> (e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed) -> (e-mail address removed)

I am using Outlook Express 6, but other users are using
Outlook.

Since I wanted to be sure I could send from any of my
addresses, I didn't remove them from my list in OE6. I
just checked "include this account when receiving mail or
synchronizing" in all but one. (the llfitness.com
address.)

Unfortunately, when I respond to an email that was sent
to (e-mail address removed), the email is sent from
(e-mail address removed). If I go in to the massageking.com
account and re-check the box in question, then go and
reply, it works. My email comes from (e-mail address removed).

Is this a bug or is it by design? If so, why?

Thanks,

Johnathon Wright
IT Operations
LLFitness

 

[*Vanguard*]

Johnathon Wright said in news:[email protected]:

SUMMARY

I have several email addresses on the same server.
Previously, I just checked all addresses. I would like to
set up aliases so that I only have to check one account.
However, it is important that a reply to one address not
come from another address. I can not figure it out in
Outlook and in outlook express 6, unchecking "include
this account when receiving mail or synchronizing" does
not respond from the address to which the mail was sent.
Checking this box works.

LONG VERSION

Like many of my fellow employees, I have email addresses
at several different domains on the same server.

(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
etc., etc.

Because this happened sort of slowly, I was just adding a
new pop3 mailbox for everyone as we got new domains. Now,
I would like to set up aliases, and have everyone just
check one address for all their incoming mail. We aren't
experiencing slowness yet, but reducing server load can't
be bad for you...

Anyway, I kept this as my main email address:

(e-mail address removed)

and I set up aliases:

(e-mail address removed) -> (e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed) -> (e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed) -> (e-mail address removed)

I am using Outlook Express 6, but other users are using
Outlook.

Since I wanted to be sure I could send from any of my
addresses, I didn't remove them from my list in OE6. I
just checked "include this account when receiving mail or
synchronizing" in all but one. (the llfitness.com
address.)

Unfortunately, when I respond to an email that was sent
to (e-mail address removed), the email is sent from
(e-mail address removed). If I go in to the massageking.com
account and re-check the box in question, then go and
reply, it works. My email comes from (e-mail address removed).

Is this a bug or is it by design? If so, why?

Thanks,

Johnathon Wright
IT Operations
LLFitness

Sounds like "aliases" to you really means forwarding messages from one
account to another and just polling that one destination account. A
table of aliases that really just redirect inbound e-mails into one
account means you are really only using one account. Your e-mail client
only knows about the one account from which it yanks messages. If you
had separate accounts from which to poll then your e-mail client could
track from which account a message arrived. By sending them to all one
account then your e-mail client only knows about that one account and
that is how it tracks from what account the message was received. Your
e-mail client won't know anything about your scripts using a table of
aliases on the server that redirect e-mails from several pseudo accounts
into one real account.

You need to keep an account defined for all your accounts and have your
e-mail client yank from each one. All POP3 accounts will put their
inbound messages into the one message store; i.e., all POP3 accounts get
melded into the same Inbox. When you reply, it will use the same
account for your reply as through which the message was received. For
example, if you have a message_A through account_A and message_B through
account_B, and even if account_A is the default account, a reply to
message_B will go through your account_B. The default account is used
for new messages (because you are not replying to a message that already
has an account associated with it through which that message was
received).

If occasionally you want to use a different sending account that what
was used for the receiving account, use the Accounts toolbar button (in
Outlook 2002) or Send Using menu (in pre-OL2002). That is, you can
reply to message_B (received through account_B) but have your reply sent
through account_A.

I suppose it is possible your scripts for aliasing your accounts could
insert an "X" header that identified the originally specified e-mail
address and you could use a rule in the e-mail client to identify the
receiving pseudo account to separate your inbound e-mails that get
delivered to the one real account. But the e-mail client will track
based on the account through which the message was received, not by the
headers within a message, so when replying the e-mail client will use
the same account. If the special header listing the psuedo e-mail
address were inserted, I suppose you could use the macro clause in a
rule to run your own macro that interrogated the original message for
the special header to determine which account to use for the reply (but
then you said you really won't have multiple accounts since you're
polling only using the one account). I suppose you could keep around
the other accounts for the pseudo e-mail addresses but configure them
not to poll for new messages so your macro would have those accounts
defined through which it could send your reply. Lots of work rather
than simply using multiple polled accounts and let the e-mail client
track the messages by which account through which a message got
received.

There are many features of Outlook that are not present in Outlook
Express, so much of what you can do with Outlook cannot be done with
Outlook Express. I don't use Outlook Express for my e-mails but instead
just use Outlook. I only use OE for newsgroups.

 

[Guest]

I wasn't clear about how this aliases thing works.

Essentially, it takes email sent to (e-mail address removed) and
(e-mail address removed) and puts it in with the mail for
(e-mail address removed). The actual contents of the email
(including the To: field) does not change.

In outlook express, after all the aliases were set up, if
that one check-box was checked, then OE responded from
the correct account. If the check-box was NOT checked,
then it didn't work.

 

[*Vanguard*]

(e-mail address removed) said in

I wasn't clear about how this aliases thing works.

Essentially, it takes email sent to (e-mail address removed) and
(e-mail address removed) and puts it in with the mail for
(e-mail address removed). The actual contents of the email
(including the To: field) does not change.

In outlook express, after all the aliases were set up, if
that one check-box was checked, then OE responded from
the correct account. If the check-box was NOT checked,
then it didn't work.

OL2002: How to Select an E-mail Account to Send Messages
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=296619
"If you do not select an e-mail account to use when you send the
message, a new message is sent using your default e-mail account. When
you reply to a message, the reply message is sent from the e-mail
account that received the message."

Well, if you have an account disabled for polling (i.e., you configure
it to *not* receive) then no message can come through that account (so
no message can be associated with that account). If you disable polling
on those other accounts, you'll have to use the Accounts toolbar button
to select which account you want to use to send if you want to use other
than the default account (because it is now your only account). In
Outlook 2002, you can separately configure whether you receive, send, or
do both for an account. I would suspect that if you want to send using
a different account then the "send" option must be enabled for the
account. But if the "receive" option is disabled then no messages come
through that account so no message will be assigned to that account.

You can check the account through which a message was received by adding
the "E-mail Account" column to your message list pane. I have multiple
accounts (but which are all enabled for send and receive) and have added
the "E-mail Account" column in the Junk (for spam) and Trash folders. I
also added it to my Inbox message list pane. This lets me see through
which account a message was received. This is NOT dictated by the
contents of the To header which may not even have my e-mail address in
it.

It is possible Outlook Express has different behavior than Outlook.
They are not derivatives of each other nor is one a lite version of the
other. They are wholly separate products. Outlook Express used to be
called Internet Mail and News (and changing it to Outlook Express has
caused lots of confusion amongst users thinking it is somehow related to
Outlook). I don't use OE for e-mail so I cannot note what is its
behavior regarding how it tracks through which account a message is
received. However, I would doubt it would use the To header since that
can contain any value, it is optional (may appear zero or one times),
and is NOT used to specify the recipient (which is specified in the RCPT
command sent by the e-mail client to the SMTP mail server).