How do you see the full headers in a received email in Outlook?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Don Smith
  • Start date Start date
D

Don Smith

When I get a confirmation back, I have to click on the attachments
texts to see which email was confirmed. I would like that to be part
of the email reply text and not have to click on the text icon.

Don
 
Don Smith said:
When I get a confirmation back, I have to click on the attachments
texts to see which email was confirmed. I would like that to be part
of the email reply text and not have to click on the text icon.

Don
Click to expand...


From glancing at ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc3798.txt which
defines the Disposition-Notification-To header used for read receipt
requests, the MUA (mail user agent; aka e-mail client) will specify the
content of the returned message's body. So a read receipt request sent
to one recipient may return a different read receipt acknowledgement
message than when you send a read receipt request to another recipient
using a different MUA. In fact, it appears most of the handling in
getting a read receipt acknowlegement is handled by fields within the
MIME header so what gets included in the message is up to the MUA.

If you configure Outlook to automatically record responses to delivery
notifications, the original sent e-mail in the Sent Items folder should
get updated to reflect that status in its Tracking tab panel.
 
Isn't there a simpler answer?

From glancing at ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc3798.txt which
defines the Disposition-Notification-To header used for read receipt
requests, the MUA (mail user agent; aka e-mail client) will specify the
content of the returned message's body. So a read receipt request sent
to one recipient may return a different read receipt acknowledgement
message than when you send a read receipt request to another recipient
using a different MUA. In fact, it appears most of the handling in
getting a read receipt acknowlegement is handled by fields within the
MIME header so what gets included in the message is up to the MUA.

If you configure Outlook to automatically record responses to delivery
notifications, the original sent e-mail in the Sent Items folder should
get updated to reflect that status in its Tracking tab panel.
Click to expand...
 
Don Smith said:
Isn't there a simpler answer?
Click to expand...


In what environment are you using read receipts? Are you on a corporate
network using Exchange and there exists a company or department policy
dictating that all employees therein must enable automatic response to
read receipt requests or answer Yes when prompted (and must not set the
option to always ignore and discard these requests)? Otherwise, read
receipts are a worthless feature since the recipient gets the same
configuration options as you do, which means they can and probably will
elect to prompt (and they'll say No) or to just ignore your read receipt
requests.

It isn't simple enough to just check the e-mail that you sent to look at
its Tracking tab to see if you got the acknowledgement?
 
I'm just sending say 5 emails at the same time and want to know if
Business A, or friend, B, is the one that I got a receipt from. I am
not on an exchange server, just my ISP.

Don
 
Don Smith said:
I'm just sending say 5 emails at the same time and want to know if
Business A, or friend, B, is the one that I got a receipt from. I am
not on an exchange server, just my ISP.

Don
Click to expand...


When I get a read receipt back from another Outlook user, the body of
that e-mail says:

Your message
To: <their_email_address>
Subject: 4/11/2005 4:35 PM
was read on 4/11/2005 4:44 PM.

So the e-mail address to whom you send your e-mail (that requested a
read receipt) is identified in the acknowledgement that you got back.
You see "<their_email_address>" in the returned receipt. What the body
contains in the acknowledgement is completely up to the sender's e-mail
client. If there is nothing in it that identifies the recipient then
ask them to reconfigure their e-mail client or get used to looking at
the From header to see from whom that acknowledgement was sent. You
can't control what gets put into the body of the acknowledgement e-mail
sent by the other party.

I'm using OL2002 and there does seem to be a bug. When I receive the
acknowledgement e-mail (i.e., the returned receipt), viewing it in the
Preview does NOT add the Tracking tab to the copy of the originally sent
e-mail sitting in the Sent Items folder. I have to double-click on the
acknowledgement e-mail to open in its own window and then the Tracking
tab appears in the originally sent e-mail.
 
Here is what I get in the body:

..net 004: You have asked to be notified when this e-mail message was
delivered, but the e-mail message has been sent to a destination mail
system that does not give that notification. As a result, it is not
possible to determine when the e-mail message has been delivered.

If I click on the detail text icon, I get what I wanted in the body
text:

Reporting-MTA: dns; imf18aec.mail.bellsouth.net
Arrival-Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 10:08:25 -0400
Received-From-MTA: dns; donwmkbpwrc4kv (65.6.130.171)

Final-Recipient: RFC822; <[email protected]>
Action: relayed
Status: 2.1.5
Remote-MTA: dns; mail.rhhlegal.com (65.204.231.39)
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 250 ok

Ideally, I would like all that content in the body of my return
receipt.

Thanks,

DOn

Solution:
If you want notification, attempt to contact the recipient by
alternate means to let them know about the issue.

Please reply to (e-mail address removed)
if you feel this message to be in error.On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 17:12:28
 
Don Smith said:
Here is what I get in the body:

.net 004: You have asked to be notified when this e-mail message was
delivered, but the e-mail message has been sent to a destination mail
system that does not give that notification. As a result, it is not
possible to determine when the e-mail message has been delivered.

If I click on the detail text icon, I get what I wanted in the body
text:

Reporting-MTA: dns; imf18aec.mail.bellsouth.net
Arrival-Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 10:08:25 -0400
Received-From-MTA: dns; donwmkbpwrc4kv (65.6.130.171)

Final-Recipient: RFC822; <[email protected]>
Action: relayed
Status: 2.1.5
Remote-MTA: dns; mail.rhhlegal.com (65.204.231.39)
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 250 ok

Ideally, I would like all that content in the body of my return
receipt.
Click to expand...

Since it is the sending mail router that controls the content and format of
the message it is sending to you, there's nothing you can do about it.
 
Brian Tillman said:
Since it is the sending mail router that controls the content and
format of the message it is sending to you, there's nothing you can do
about it.
Click to expand...


For clarification, wouldn't that status only get returned by the
receiving mail server because the OP opted for delivery notification of
his e-mail? This isn't the same as sending an e-mail that requests a
read receipt because the recipient's mail client would have to handle
that. However, an e-mail requesting delivery notification is a request
that targets the recipient's mail server for a response (i.e., the
sender only knows from the receiving mail server that their e-mail got
there and nothing about whether or not the recipient read the message).

I don't think many mail servers will handle delivery receipt requests.
I forget all the reasons for it but it generally seen as superfluous
overhead. If the message is deliverable, you don't get back an NDR
(non-delivery report). If the message was not deliverable at the
receiving domain, you get an NDR. So the mail server will provide
negative feedback instead of wasting its time confirming every
successful delivery.

When the OP said "get a confirmation back", I had assumed he opting to
request a read receipt from the recipient. It looks instead that Don is
opting for delivery notification. Lots, if not most, mail servers won't
bother handling those. Why would they bother wasting resources to send
back a second e-mail for all the messages they accepted when they can
just send back a few e-mails reporting failure? A delivery receipt in
no way guarantees that the recipient actually got it, only that your
message got to their mail server, and few recipients operated their own
mail server to be in any way responsible for guaranteeing delivery or
being responsible for what the mail server does.
 
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