I've recently set up Exchange 2007 for my employer. We have several customers that write to use for tech support so I've set up distribution groups for all customers that distribute mail to each of the support personnel. What I need is to set up an Auto Response that will send a message back to the customer letting them know they're issue is being looked at & will be responded to shortly. I set up a transport rule to apply to messages delivered to the distribution groups then send a bounce message back to the sender with that message but it doesn't seem to work. Not only does it not respond to messages but it stops the messages from being delivered altogether. I've read a lot of solutions indicating that it can be set up through Outlook but that is not going to be an option for our company. Or, at least, is the very last option we want to exercise. Is there any way to set up an Auto Response through the Exchange server using the distribution groups that have been created?

Well,Distribution groups have no such capability. However, you can create a separate mailbox corresponding to each group, make it a member of the group, and create an Inbox Assistant reply rule for that user.Public folders are easy, just create a folder rule for each, a standard feature of public folders.Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

Distribution Group Properties-->Advanced Tab-->Send out-of-office message to originator by default this check box is not selectedif this check box is selected, users who send messages to the distribution group will receive Out of Office replies from any member that has an Out of Office rule turned on and you could have a dummy mailbox that is a member of the DLi hope this will help youMCSE,CCNA,VCP,APP

Ismail:OOF replies only once per sender and Lursa doesn't need that, they need a auto-reply for every single mail which has been sent to that Distribution List.Consider a senario where one user Sends two email to that DL? - that user will get response for the first email and henceforth no response :), Cause OOF works only once per send. ;)Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

Unfortunately, if you mean the Inbox assistant associated with Outlook, it is not going to be an option. We have 15 distribution lists for our support personnel only. All messages sent to those lists are distributed to, at the moment, 4 different people. The possibility also exists that more support personnel will be hired & added to the distribution list. If I understand the Inbox Assistant correctly, I would have only a couple of options. Set it up on one of the four instances of Outlook & have it send a response to e-mails rec'd from the distribution group or set it up on all instances of Outlook in which case, the customer would get a minimum of 4 responses, right? The problem with setting it up on just one persons installation of Outlook is that person may not have his/her computer on or Outlook opened consistently which would, I think, inhibit it's ability to send responses. Is there any option to do this on the Exchange server without getting Outlook involved? BTW - Thanks so much for such a speedy response. I really appreciate it.

Lursa,You just need create one mailbox and make that mailbox is a member of all the 15 DL's.Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

Sorry to keep on with it but, I don't think I understand the option you've presented. I'm really new to Exchange & not familiar with all of it's features. Can you give me more specifics about the solution you've presented? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

Let me explain you.You need to create one user with a mailbox, and make that user a member of all those 15 distribution list. 1. Create a new mailbox-enabled user.2. Make that new user a member of the group.3. Connect OWA on to the new mailbox and create an Inbox Assistant rule that replies to all messages. Don't make the rule too fancy or else it won't run server-side and will require Outlook to be running. A simple reply rule should run server-side.4. Hide the user from the address book.5. Don't use that user for anything else.Even you can check the following link for pointer.http://techsupport.psr.edu/AutoReply/AutoReply.htm Using Inbox Assistant in Microsoft Outlookhttp://www.slipstick.com/rules/olia.htmArun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

That makes a lot more sense. I was playing around with that in OWA a little bit yesterday but couldn't get it to work. I will try as you suggested but am wondering, since it looks like an out of office message, will something to that effect appear in the subject line of the response? I can't remember off the top of my head if it gives the option to add your own subject line. Thanks.

I've been working on this for a couple of hours this morning & it seems that you cannot create a reply rule using OWA. You can create rules but it will only allow for forward, redirect, move, copy, delete, mark the message's importance, or stop processing more rules. It appears that the Inbox Assistant is only available through Outlook. I also tried again to use the out of office option with OWA but it doesn't work when the box is added to the distribution group. In other words, when an e-mail is sent to the distribution group, no auto response is received by the sender. The sender does receive a response if the message is sent to that box directly but Out of Office is printed in the subject line. So, aside from it only sending 1 time to each sender, using out of office in the subject line completely precludes it from being used for our purposes. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hello Lursa,You're not suppose to use OOF in this case, and you have to use Outlook for using Inbox assistant. Configure outlook for that user.Loggin to outlook and follow the following KB,OLEXP: How to Configure Inbox Assistant to Filter Messageshttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/187298Create Auto Reply Emails with Outlook Rules & Template http://www.timeatlas.com/mos/Email/Outlook/Create_Auto_Reply_Emails_with_Outlook_Rules_&_Template/Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

I just want to make sure I understand this completely. There is no way to set up an auto response without setting up a mailbox using Outlook? I only ask because this really should be a last resort for our company & if we do not have to set up another inbox on someone's computer to run this we'd prefer not to. Thanks for you help.

Yes there is no way - You just need to do this once and after thatclose the outlook and delete the outlook profile from that workstation and you're done!.There is no administration or maintainence work required for that user at all.Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

Lursa,even you would like to check this tread.How do I configure a Public Folder Auto Reply and prevent Mail Loopshttp://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchangesvrgeneral/thread/48e6ddde-731b-4119-b3ee-412f5f101279/Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

I'm completely confused as to how you can delete the outlook profile from the workstation & still have the response be sent. Can you elaborate on that a little for me? Thanks.

There are two type of rule, one which saves in your mailbox and can be run even outlook is closed and the other one which only runs when the outlook is open and running.Once you create the rule in outlookGo to tools->Rules and AltersDouble click on the rule which you have cretaed and it will pull the Rules Wizard for that perticular rule.Uncheck the option "On this machine only".Thats it, click on apply, ok and close the outlook.Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

Just so I'm sure I've got this correct. 1. create a new mailbox (we'll call it Auto Respond) & add it to my distribution groups 2. set that mailbox up in an outlook client 3. create the Inbox Assistant rule that will send the auto response 4. delete the new mailbox, Auto Respond, from the outlook client I want to make sure because it's not ideal to set up this extra account on anyone's outlook client & do not want to leave it that way as, I believe, that person would receive two of each e-mail; being set up as him/herself & the auto respond account. Am I right about that? Thank you.

You're right... and when you say in stpe 4. delete the new mailbox - I understand you're going to delete the profile for the new mailbox not the mailbox account :). One more thing, do not forget this once you done the inbox assistance rule mentioned in my previous reply.Double click on the rule which you have cretaed and it will pull the Rules Wizard for that perticular rule.Uncheck the option "On this machine only".Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

Yes, the profile. :) I walked through the steps to create a rule earlier today &, when I read your instruction to uncheck that box, I double checked & that box was not checked to begin with so I think it should be ok. As long as I'm looking at the right box. I found it at the bottom of the list of step 1 for creating the rule. It was the only place I saw it so I have to assume that's the correct box. Thank you so much for all your help. We are having the DNS record changed to point to this server this week & I now feel prepared to handle this important aspect of our communication with customers. I hope you won't mind, though, if I write in again if I run into a problem with it. :)

No problem - always gald to help :)Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

Arun, Relative to this subject. I have successfully setup an auto reply using OWA. However, when someone sends an email to that ID they get the intended message but it comes with a different subject. What should I do so that it comes with the same original subject as sent by the sender? Please help. Thanks, Shahzeb