Outlook 2003 autoresponse without Exchange Server

[Tosca]

Hi everyone

I had an exchange of messages recently as I have a stand-alone Outlook 2003
in which I'd like to use some sort of autorespond. I realise that I will
have to have Outlook open and connected 24/7. I have created a rule to send
a template (simply saying that I'm on holiday and will return ASAP upon my
return on <date>). In order to test it, I sent a message to my ISP account
from a hotmail account and the autoresponse worked fine. However, when I
sent another (from the same hotmail address) the autoresponse didn't occur.
The message didn't arrive in my junk folder and I didn't make any changes to
the settings. Is there anything that might say somthing like "respond only
once to each sender" which I would have to uncheck? I know that I will have
to set an exception to messages containing "re:" in the title to prevent
e-mail ping pong between autoresponding systems.

BTW, I have checked http://www.slipstick.com but couldn't find anything
there. Does anyone have any idea why the response is being sent only once?
Ideally, I'd like to have it sent in response to every message. I realise
that a valid comment could be "person X has already sent you a message to
which you've sent an autoresponse so they know that you're away" but, if
they sent a subsequent message which required a time-limited response
(perhaps for a legal matter), if an autoresponse is sent, this could be
traced or audited and may be used to get me out of legal bother - i.e. I'd
like an autoresponse to EVERY incoming message.

Thanks for your patience and time.

 

[Tosca]

I've been "playing" and identified that, if I close down Outlook between
sending messages from my hotmail account to my ISP e-mail address, Outlook
will send the autoresponse message each time. If I don't, it seems to
remember my hotmail address as having been sent the message already. This
is despite my having set the rule to send the message to every incoming
message. Why is it ignoring me and doing some sort of filter on the e-mail
address whilst Outlook remains open. As I said, it seems to "forget" my
hotmail address if I close Outlook down. I really need it to respond to
EVERY incoming message, as the rule states.

Thanks in advance.