Using Out of Office Assistant with .PST file

[Derek Upson-Pioneer]

Our exchange server is set-up so mail gets delivered to .pst files. I do
not want to change to having mail delivered to mailboxes.

When employees are going to be out....they set-up the Out of Office
Assistant. However, this only seems to work for internal use. If someone
from within the exchange server sends an email to this person....they get
the reply email back stating that they are out of the office. However, if
someone from outside our company sends an email...they don't get the
automatic email.

Is there a workaround to this? is something not set-up properly on our
server? any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Derek

 

[Brian Tillman]

When employees are going to be out....they set-up the Out of Office
Assistant. However, this only seems to work for internal use. If
someone from within the exchange server sends an email to this
person....they get the reply email back stating that they are out of
the office. However, if someone from outside our company sends an
email...they don't get the automatic email.

That is an Exchange setting. By default, Exchange won't send an autoreply
to an outside address.

 

[Derek Upson-Pioneer]

But I know that I get the messages from other companies that i send emails
to. So it must work somehow. I was under the impression that it just had
to do with where mail is delivered to (the .pst file versus a mailbox on the
exchange server).

Does anyone know how other companies are able to get this to work for
outside emails?

 

[Guest]

it's a setting on your internet mail connector to allow OOO replies apparently

But I know that I get the messages from other companies that i send emails
to. So it must work somehow. I was under the impression that it just had
to do with where mail is delivered to (the .pst file versus a mailbox on the
exchange server).

Does anyone know how other companies are able to get this to work for
outside emails?

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Our exchange server is set-up so mail gets delivered to .pst files.
I do not want to change to having mail delivered to mailboxes.

Oh my. Why? This is very, very unwise, my friend. Store everything on the
Exchange server only - and set these users up with profiles configured for
offline files/cached mode if they work offline/remotely. By not storing data
in the mailbox, you are running a huge risk of lost/corrupted/irrecoverable
data. How are you backing the user data up? Also, the users can't use any
collaboration features of Exchange. Or OWA. Etc. Do not use PST files when
you have better options!

When employees are going to be out....they set-up the Out of Office
Assistant. However, this only seems to work for internal use. If
someone from within the exchange server sends an email to this
person....they get the reply email back stating that they are out of
the office. However, if someone from outside our company sends an
email...they don't get the automatic email.

Is there a workaround to this? is something not set-up properly on
our server? any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks in
advance.

You need to configure Exchange to allow OOF replies to the Internet. The
method is determined by your version of Exchange, which you haven't
included.

I suggest you include more info in a new message, and post it to
microsoft.public.exchange.admin as OOF is an Exchange function, not an OL
one. Note that OOF will also reply to every spammer who successfully sends
mail to that mailbox, letting the spammer know that they have a 'live one'.
This is often considered an acceptable risk given the functionality OOF
gives, however.

HTH.