Outlook 2003 - How to use Rules to replace Out Of Office

[irbk]

We have recently upgraded from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010. One of the unexpected glitches that we ran across is that, in Exchange 2010, to comply with RFC 2298, the Return-Path header that's sent with Out Of Office messages, contains a Null Return-Path header. This causes issues with the spam filter on some of our biggest clients as their anti-spam software sees a null Return-Path and treats the OOO messages as spam. One of the ways "around" this is, rather then using the Out Of Office assistant to set up an OOO message, you set up rules. I've found that if you create a rule to apply to a message after it arrives received during a specified time and have the server respond using a specified message, you get a pretty accurate recreation of the OOO message except that it contains a valid Return-Path so it won't get treated as spam by our clients. Here is the tricky part. A normal OOO will only respond to a particular sender once. The Rule that I have currently set up will just continue to respond to every message it receives. I'd like to be able to set up an exception in the rule that would only send any particular address 1 message per day to avoid a mail storm. I can see User A and User B, both being on the same e-mail either both in "To" or "CC" and then they start bouncing these Rule based "OOO" messages to each other.
So, the question is, in Outlook 2003, how would one go about setting a rule so that the "Rule" your using to replace your normal "OOO" message will only send a minimal amount of messages to each specific sender?

Thanks in Advance.

 

[Lilliabeth]

Create a new message
It should be Plain Text
Save As... Outlook Template (.oft)

Make your rule specify the action 'Reply using Specific Template' and select the template you just made.

That is supposed to work (reply only once to each sender per Outlook session), so test it, but it probably won't work. You might get a 'cannot send reply' error. (If it works, please let me know!)

Here is the workaround, but it's not fun:

http://tinyurl.com/2auodxp

The part that's not fun is that you have to go through the Run Rule Now every time you reopen OUtlook... while being careful not to send to everyone already in your Inbox.

Sorry I didn't have a better answer.

--Lilliabeth

 

[irbk]

Thanks for the reply but that work around won't work. I can't have my users being logged on while they are off on vacation for a week. So it can't be a client side rule like this, it needs to be server side. I've found that if you use the "have server reply using a specific message" it works regardless of if outlook is on or off and the rule works just fine.... with the exception that it won't send the message only once to a particular user.

 

[SkipVought]

So it can't be a client side rule like this, it needs to be server side.

MS office is devoted to client-side applications.

Try forum955.

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[irbk]

"have server reply using a specific message" is server side (works even if the outlook client is closed). The issue is because we moved from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 so the Exchange 2003 forum isn't going to solve anything. I've already got a thread in the Exchange 2010 forum on how to go about solving it a different way.

Thanks anyway.

 

[Lilliabeth]

"have server reply using a specific message...won't send the message only once to a particular user.

yes, that is the caveat of the 'have server reply' action.


--Lilliabeth

 

[irbk]

Yep, works perfectly for a work around... with the exception of that. Oh well.

 

[dallen43]

You could at least filter out replying to other OOO replys.