Outlook distribution list problem?

[Guest]

I'm trying to send out an email to a distribution list of about 130 people,
using Outlook 2000 SP-3. I've been doing this successfully up until the end
of May, using the same distribution list, to which I've added maybe 5
contacts since then. Now when I try, my mail bounces straight back to me in a
mail from "System Administrator" (which I think means Outlook itself). The
top of the error mail says "Your message did not reach some or all of the
intended recipients", and then lists all of the addressees. Every single one
has the error "No transport provider was available for delivery to this
recipient."

The question is, is this a recent change to Outlook, perhaps as a result of
me installing a security update? I have looked in detail at all of the
various options and settings that I can find, to see if I can see anything
that might do this as some kind of anti-virus measure, but I can't see
anything at all.

Can anyone point me in the direction of what the problem might be? Is
something in Outlook zapping attempts to send mail to large numbers of
recipients?

I use Outlook without Exchange Server, connecting directly to my ISP via
POP3 and SMTP, so this is not anything to do with Exchange Server. And I do
not believe that the email is getting as far as my ISP (the bounce-back
occurs the instant the message disappears from the Outbox).

 

[Guest]

See if the following MSKB article helps you to troubleshoot your issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;197417

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please reply
only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the pointer. I'm looking at the article now to see if anything in
there might explain it, but my first impression is that it won't. I have
successfully sent and received email through Outlook before and since this
problem, and most of the symptoms listed in the article seem to be generic -
they would stop all email. Also, one of the email addresses that gave the
error was my own, which I know to be working.

My working hypothesis is that there is some anti-virus software somewhere -
either within Outlook or elsewhere on my PC - which thinks it is seeing
behaviour like that of one of the mass-mailing viruses and is silently
killing the attempt to send the mail. If so, it would be nice if it said so,
even if it only wrote an entry in the event log (which I have checked to no
avail).

Obviously, if it is one of my other bits of software (like ZoneAlarm,
Command AntiVirus or PestPatrol), I won't expect anyone here to be able to
advise me. But if there is a feature somewhere in Outlook that might do
something like this, I hope someone can point me in the right direction to
correct the behaviour.

--
Managing Director,
Enchaine Informatic Ltd
www.enchaine.com

 

[Guest]

You say you have added about 5 contacts to your DL since May...could one of
them possibly be corrupted as one of the sections of the MSKB article
suggested? Why not try removing them from the DL one by one to see if that
makes a difference (you can always add them back in)?

Outlook does not have any antivirus mechanism built into it, and all Outlook
2000 has is simple Junk and Adult Mail filtering, which was not very
sophisticated. It's doubtful the junk filter would be the cause of your
issue. The 3rd party programs are a different story. You would have to
disable them temporarily and, if sending to the DL works as intended, add
them back one by one to see if you can isolate the culprit.

One more thing you can do: Try running the Inbox Repair Tool against your
..PST file to see if it finds any errors. Search your drive for a file called
scanpst.exe and run it. Allow the program to make a backup of your file
before it makes any changes.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please reply
only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***

 

[Guest]

I wrote myself a VBA script that picks up the distribution list and sends a
mail to each individual addressee on it one by one, meaning that I can tell
instantly exactly which contacts are causing problems. I found two out of
125, which is irritating, as it means that a single bad contact can
effectively veto an entire distribution list.

I also ran into some other irritating behaviour of Outlook. Even though I
digitally signed my macro and set Outlook up to recognise that digital
certificate as being a trusted one, it still prompted me to confirm each and
every single email that the script generated (with a 5-second delay between
each one). There wasn't even a "yes to all" button to speed things up.

--
Managing Director,
Enchaine Informatic Ltd
www.enchaine.com

 

[Guest]

See if the information on the following page helps with your second issue:

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/esecup.htm#autosec

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please reply
only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***

 

[Guest]

I've looked at the article and got as far as creating the registry key, but I
can't work out where the "Outlook Security Settings" public folder is. Is
this referring to a directory within the filing system or a folder within
Outlook? Or is this something to do with Exchange Server, as implied by
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263297?

I must say, it's a bit annoying that Outlook should choose to deviate like
this from the semantics of macro signing and trusted certificates. Given that
Word and Excel both allow me to run such signed macros without continually
prompting me, I would have intuitively expected the same behaviour from all
of the Office tools.

 

[Guest]

You must have migrated from the original article I sent you to over to
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/esecup/admin.htm. It does say at the top of
that article that it applies to an Exchange environment (which is where
public folders are used).

Your best bet may be to simply download and install the Express ClickYes
program listed on the first page I sent you to. It will at least click that
Yes button for you.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please reply
only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***