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Unique Request - need help - 13.Nov.2008 3:45:45 PM

thetzel

Posts: 8
Joined: 13.Nov.2008
Status: offline

There is an executive, pretty high up at my company, that has requested an auto reply message from an account to go internally and externally. Pretty simple request, except that we globally block external auto replies in order to prevent spam and mail loops. We can't specify additional domains to allow the auto replies to because the emails could be coming in from any address.

The account is currently a public folder residing on Exchange 2003, but we have the option to move it to a mailbox on either a 2003 or 2007 server or to a public folder on our 2007 server. We're currently in the process of migrating to 2007. Basically we want a way to allow auto replies, but only from this account. We need to block it from every other account in the org.

Microsoft suggested that we use an Out of Office reply, which we allow internally and externally, but we don't want to do this. An OOF reply gives the wrong impression. The auto reply is to let people know we got their message and that we'll get back to them shortly. I've also tested using the OOF with a template for a response and setting a custom subject, but the Exchange servers seem to treat it as an auto reply message and block it.

Another idea I had was to set a custom header on all auto reply messages sent from any account in the company and use a transport rule to change it for accounts we want to allow auto replies from. We use IronPorts for our email spam filters and there's an option to block or allow messages based on email headers. If this is an option we could remove the global block on auto replies in exchange.

Does anyone know if there is a way to detect an auto reply or an out of office message using transport rules or something else in Exchange?

Any other ideas to solve this problem?

Post #: 1

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RE: Unique Request - need help - 13.Nov.2008 4:11:31 PM

Naddy

Posts: 134
Joined: 22.Oct.2008
Status: offline

Hi,

take some time and read this article:-
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996309.aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/266166

Thanks,
Naddy

(in reply to thetzel)

Post #: 2

RE: Unique Request - need help - 13.Nov.2008 5:34:10 PM

thetzel

Posts: 8
Joined: 13.Nov.2008
Status: offline

Thank you for your response Naddy. I do understand modifying remote domains and we intentionally have it set to block automatic replies. Allowing the replies for the whole company is not an option. Configuring specific domains to allow auto replies to isn't really an option either because we would end up configuring hundreds of additional domains which would defeat the purpose of blocking globally. There doesn't appear to be an option to allow auto replies from specific accounts to any other domain. Or am I missing something?

The only way I could think of configuring the default option to allow auto replies to any domain would be if there was another way to block every user in my company except specific ones from sending auto replies externally. I'm hoping there is some work around or non conventional way to make this work.

(in reply to Naddy)

Post #: 3

RE: Unique Request - need help - 13.Nov.2008 6:42:08 PM

Naddy

Posts: 134
Joined: 22.Oct.2008
Status: offline

I am not sure if there is a way to block every user for sending auto-reply except for one. need to search a lot on this......i don't remember but i have read it in some articles to block recipients from Auto-reply...i will surely try to search for the same.

For the time being you can setup a server side rule in outlook 2007, it best an easy.
Configure Outlook 2007 for the account that you want to use Auto-Reply feature on. In Outlook client go to Tools, Rules and Alerts. Click on New Rule, under Start from blank rule choose Check messages when they arrive and hit Next. Choose what you need in there and hit Next again. Choose have server reply using a specific message and click on a specific message link. Type in desired subject and message. Hit Finish and you are set to go.

(in reply to thetzel)

Post #: 4

RE: Unique Request - need help - 14.Nov.2008 9:15:35 AM

thetzel

Posts: 8
Joined: 13.Nov.2008
Status: offline

Thanks for the help so far. I think for now we're going to try setting up the server side rule like you said and an OOF message for only external users. We're going to try and see if our IronPort appliances can change the subject by modifying the headers for the OOF messages of just that account. That's today's project.

We were actually using the server side reply that you described, but of course it only works inside the company because we have it blocked with the remote domain settings. It works really well within those limitations. Thanks again. I'll post the results of my test later.

(in reply to Naddy)

Post #: 5