Unable to open Hyperlinks with a %2E

[Guest]

Hopefully someone here can help. I've received reports of users being
unable to open hyperlinks from Outlook if the URL is built with a %2E in
place of the period/dots. Funny thing is that it's able to convert/use %20
in a link, just not the %2E.

Example:
http://www.microsoft.com (works just fine)
http://www.microsoft.com (does not work)

This occurs when the mail is created programatically (via MOSS) or my
manually typing out the email.

I've looked for settings in Outlook and attempted to rewet default settings,
etc to no avail. I've also been looking for a way to make MOSS build the
URL with the period/dot but haven't had any luck there either.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Pat Willener]

A couple of questions:
- what means "does not work"?
- what message format are you using?
- why would you *want* to use %2E instead of the dot?
- have you tried appending the missing slash at the end of the URL?
- finally, what version of Outlook?

I have no problem opening URLs containing %2E with all above
combinations using Outlook 2003.

 

[Guest]

Hi Pat,

Thanks for the response.
To answer you questions:

- what means "does not work"?

When the link is clicked, nothing occurs. No errors, no browsers, no
noticeable event. When I hover over the link it pops up the tool tip listing
the hyperlink, but that's about it.

- what message format are you using?

I can recreate this condition in Plain Text, RTF and HTML

- why would you *want* to use %2E instead of the dot?

Unfortunately we first ran into this during an implementation of Microsoft
Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) and I have yet to find a place in MOSS where
I can change how the product builds the hyperlinks it sends in subscription
messages.

- have you tried appending the missing slash at the end of the URL?

I tried but had the same results

- finally, what version of Outlook?

2003 SP2 and 2007

After thinking of it further I thought it may be a restriction (by design)
to prevent spam/phishing emails from being able to send obfuscated URLs.
WIth that in mind I checked the Exchange/Outlook security template to see if
there was a setting there that could be set to 'allow' this for specific
domains, etc. but didn't have any luck.

Thoughts?

 

[Pat Willener]

I just tried again with my Outlook 2003-SP3, and found that
- HTML format works fine
- Plain Text format behaves the same way as yours: nothing happens

Could it be that SP3 has cured a part of that problem? Could you try?