sziv said:
I don't seem to have this option in my Outlook, Rules. 'Help' tells me I need
Microsoft Exchange to set up an Out-of-Office reply. What is Microsoft
Exchange and how can I get it?
If you don't know what is Exchange then you aren't using it. That means
you cannot use the Out Of Office (OoO) reply service that is made
available within the Exchange mail server.
You will need to define a rule that emulates the OoO feature in
Exchange. Read:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311107
However, your e-mail service provider (ESP) may already provide an
auto-responder function. Use the webmail agent to access your account
and check its options or features to see if they already provide an
auto-responder (might be called auto-reply, vacation response, or some
other name). It is better to have auto-replies handled at the mail
server than at the client. At the client, and by using the emulated
scheme mentioned in the KB article, you need to: (1) Have your host
powered up all the time (which means a really big UPS for extended
up-time); (2) Have your host booted into Windows; (3) Have Outlook
loaded (and probably load on start by adding a shortcut to the Startup
folder in case your host crashes and restarts - providing you left the
recovery options in Windows to reboot on a crash); (4) Define a template
and rule in Outlook to do the auto-replying; and, (5) Hope that Outlook
doesn't get flaky when continuously running which can result in it stop
polling your e-mail account(s).
Good luck if you decide to go the emulated OoO feature using a template
and rule. You'll need it.
