[Greg.Allen]

Does anyone know how or if it's even possible to auto reply to an external recipient when said recipient sends to an email address within the Exchange organization that's attached to a Public Folder? We have a few of our clients setup so that they can send an email to an address we give them and then someone checks the Public Folder for new messages. We want them to get an auto reply saying something such as: " we will be answering your email within 24 hours" or something similar.

I can easily make this work by adding a rule using the Folder Assistant within the particular PF. The problem is that when you create the rule and prepare your template it only replies to posts to individuals internally.We want anyone who sends to the Folder's email address to automatically get a reply whether it's from an outside company, yahoo, gmail, ect.

I DON'T see a way to make it work, but as a last ditch I am hoping someone knows a tweak that I don't know of.

Thanks in advance.

[JakeG]

The first thing that comes to mind would be some kind of macro or form, not sure what would instantiate the code though. Usually it's forms and button clicking. Maybe you could fire an event to reply when someone simply views the message. Just make sure to update the message with a custom field to mark it as auto-replied-to.

[Sembee]

Have you enabled automatic replies to the internet in ESM?
It is not enabled by default.

However it not a setting to be changed lightly. It will apply to all users in the entire org and can cause email loops. A badly written rule for automatic replies can cause a looping message which only stops when a server breaks.

Simon.

[Layer9]

Sembee is correct in the fix. I had this issue as well. The resolution is in the GLOBAL SETTINGS of your Exchange Server System Manager.

Just open Global Settings, and enable automatic replies.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=266166

As for the mail loops I don't see an issue as long as you're just setting this to a pulic folder. Just create the rule for the public folder only and you should be fine.

[Sembee]

While this rule may not cause mail loops, by enabling the feature you allow users to create similar rules. Users are clueless and will create rules that cause loops.

Then you could have someone who sends an email FROM an address with an automatic reply on it, and that can cause a loop.

Simon.