out of the office messages in exchange

[bchi99]

Could someone please explain to me how the OOF feature works between users within the same exchange server vs a message from a user external to the organization regarding which auto reply to send if there are two configured? Does the exchange server use the message header to determine if the message is coming from an external source or internally? thanks!

 

[ShackDaddy]

Internal messages don't use SMTP addresses, they use X500 addresses, so it's easy for the system to determine what's an internal and what's an external address. An X500 address looks something like this: /o=BoyScoutCabal/ou=Atlantis/cn=Recipients/cn=IAmin

Normally OOF will only send a single reply to an address that emails them. If another email from the same address comes in, it will not generate another OOF message.

By default Exchange 2003 will not send OOF replies externally. To enable it to do that, follow this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821899

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net
TrainSignal.com

 

[bchi99]

Thanks for the reply, is that still the same for exchange 2007 and 2010?

 

[ShackDaddy]

I don't think you could configure two different OOF messages on Exchange 2003, but you can on 2007/2010.

Some details about how the 2010 OOF works:

http://www.theemailadmin.com/2010/06/exchange-server-2010-out-of-office/

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net
TrainSignal.com