FTP in Outlook 2003

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Guest

I have an interesting problem that I cannot find any information on. Here
are the particulars:
- We have an FTP site we use for customers. There are a number of
directories
and files are put in a directory for customers. The customer is then sent,
via e-mail, a link to the directory containing their data. The link is in
the format of ftp://domainname\username:p[email protected].
- When one receives the e-mail they just need to click on the link and
they have access to the directory containing their files.

I have one very important customer, using Outlook 2003, that this link DOES
NOT work for! If he cuts and pastes the link, from the e-mail message, into
the Address Bar of IE, it works. Paste the link into Word and click it, it
works. Click it in the e-mail message, no work! The link in the e-mail
message is:
- On ONE line, that is unbroken or not split.
- Colored blue and underlined, just like you would expect a link to be.

My thinking is that there must be some setting in Outlook 2003 that is set
or not set, but I can't figure out where it might be. I have looked at all
the settings, or at least I think I have, and there's nothing specific to
FTP. I have searched Technet and the Knowledge Bases, nothing.

Has anyone come across this before? Does anyone have any information that
can help me resolve this?

I know this sounds trivial, as the customer can still get at his data, but
the president of the company I am working for is upset as this appears as
though we don't know what we're doing, and in trying to make things easier
for our customers it has become more work and confusing. I'm in the middle
here and need some help.

Thanks,
John
 
is the message sent as HTML and if so, is the link made clickable before
sending? If the sender copies it from another document and pastes it, the
link may pick up the colors but it won't be clickable until you press enter
or add a space after the url to convert it from text to a hyperlink. You can
easily test this before sending by trying to click it yourself.

if the link was verified as clickable before sending, view the message
source to see if the hyperlink was disabled - either by adding 'blocked::'
to the beginning of the url or by removing the hyperlink html code. (first
is a security measure added by outlook when pasting under specific
circumstances, the second done by some antivirus scanners).

if all else fails, always send him plain text email - the link should be
clickable because it's controlled by the recipients email client, not the
senders.

if the user is using ol2003 sp2, does his infobar say it blocked links as
potential phishing sites?
 
What happens when he presses it?
Do other hyperlinks work for him?
Does he see an informationbar at the top of the message (below the message
header) telling him that the links are disabled for this message? Pressing
the information bar allows him to enable the links in the message.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-FREE tool; QuickMail. Create new Outlook items anywhere from within Windows
-Properly back-up and restore your Outlook data

-----
I have an interesting problem that I cannot find any information on. Here
are the particulars:
- We have an FTP site we use for customers. There are a number of
directories
and files are put in a directory for customers. The customer is then
sent,
via e-mail, a link to the directory containing their data. The link is in
the format of ftp://domainname\username:p[email protected].
- When one receives the e-mail they just need to click on the link and
they have access to the directory containing their files.

I have one very important customer, using Outlook 2003, that this link DOES
NOT work for! If he cuts and pastes the link, from the e-mail message, into
the Address Bar of IE, it works. Paste the link into Word and click it, it
works. Click it in the e-mail message, no work! The link in the e-mail
message is:
- On ONE line, that is unbroken or not split.
- Colored blue and underlined, just like you would expect a link to be.

My thinking is that there must be some setting in Outlook 2003 that is set
or not set, but I can't figure out where it might be. I have looked at all
the settings, or at least I think I have, and there's nothing specific to
FTP. I have searched Technet and the Knowledge Bases, nothing.

Has anyone come across this before? Does anyone have any information that
can help me resolve this?

I know this sounds trivial, as the customer can still get at his data, but
the president of the company I am working for is upset as this appears as
though we don't know what we're doing, and in trying to make things easier
for our customers it has become more work and confusing. I'm in the middle
here and need some help.

Thanks,
John
 
You really should set your domain up so that it is not in the link. Here is
what you need to do:

On the Domain Controller:

Start | Run | regedit | OK

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSFTPSVC\Parameters

Name: DefaultLogonDomain
Type: REG_SZ
Data: domainname

Now your link will be:

ftp://username:p[email protected].

That should do it.

When you say "this link DOES NOT work" exactly what happens? Nothing?
 
I want to thank you all for your responses.

I have just now been able to physically look and see what has happened.
Here are the details:

The link actually works, well sort of. It launches the browser but says
that the server cannot be found. For whatever reason, when the link is put
into the address bar of the browser, it changes the backslash (\) to a
forward slash (/), and generates the error that it can't find the server.
Going into the address bar and changing the incorrect slash (/) back into the
back-slash (\) works!

BTW, George Hester, I modified the registry, as suggested and detailed, but
that just takes me to the login screen where I need to put in my username and
password. I double checked my typing, and it looks ok, so I don't know why
it did not operate as desired. But thanks for that tid-bit.

Again, thanks to all. I was well prepared and looked like I knew what I was
doing. I did not make any changes to the users Outlook 2003, but if there is
a specific suggestion, I'd be willing to pass it on.

John
 
"but that just takes me to the login screen where I need to put in my
username and password.."

Hmm that should not have happened. Make sure your link is of the form:

ftp://username:p[email protected]

What this does with the registry change I suggested is so that you do NOT
have to enter the domain name. Sorry I use form this all the time.
 
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