Exchange 2003 - Creating an auto reply for a single Email Alias
Hi, I am looking for any info on creating an auto reply for a single email alias. My client currently has 3 alias's associated with their accounts from the same exchange recipient policy and wants to remove one but would like to insert an autoreply on the one to be removed to direct them to the other accounts. They don't, however, want to have the autoreply attached to email addresses that they will be keeping. Is there a way to do this from the Exchange server or AD. Clients are using WinXP sp3, Office XP. Xchange: Win 2003 Std. sp2 with Exchange 2003 sp2 (ver6.5, Build 7638.2 SP2). The only thing I can think of is for users to indepentantly create an Outlook rule but I will verify is this is possible. Any info or direction would be greatly appreciated and I will keep digging as well. Thanks, dmats
January 27th, 2011 8:28pm

If you remove the domain from recipient policy then Exchange will not accept the email. There is nothing native that will do what you want. You would need to look for an auto responder tool that can be setup for the domain. It might be something that your domain name provider can supply. You would point the MX records for that domain to them and then they would bounce the message back for you. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources
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January 27th, 2011 10:21pm

Hey Simon, First, thanks for the quick response! And as I suspected, there isn't anything natively that can solve this. I will inquire about your suggestion but it may be more of a hassle to get it working correctly then what it's worth to the client, but it's worth a shot. One more question if you don't mind but do you know if this functionality exists natively with the new MS OS and Exchange as the client will be migrating to Win 2008 and Exchange 2010 later this year. Perhaps I can persuade them to delay this task. ;) Appreciate the assistance!! dmats
January 28th, 2011 4:04am

The only thing that has changed with Exchange 2010 is transport rules, which might allow you to do auto response. However without having something custom written the only thing you would be able to do is respond with the same message for all senders. However that would still expose you to an email loop, which is always the case with any kind of automatic response (except OOTO which only responds once). That is why a third party auto responding application would be better as they will have safe guards built in - although still not perfect. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources
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January 28th, 2011 4:22am

Again, thanks for your quick reply and advice! Your help was greatly appreciated. Cheers, dmats
January 28th, 2011 6:54pm

dmats19 - Sorry to bump and old thread, but I was curious if you ever figured out a solution for this. I need to do exactly the same thing and I can't figure out how. I would like an auto-reply sent when someone sends email to the old email address (currently set up as an alias) that says, "Your email to OLD ADDRESS has been forwarded to NEW ADDRESS. Please update your contact information." Or something like that... But I only want that to go out when someone emails the old address.
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January 6th, 2012 11:43am

Hey Chris, No worries about the bump. Unfortunately, I never found a solution for this scenario for Exchange 2003. We have since migrated to Exchange 2010 and this issue can be handled thru the transport rules inside exchange. Fortunately, this request was not a huge priority for my client at the time. The only other way that might work would be to create an individual Outlook rule, but in most client organizations, this would not be the most practical solution. Cheers..
January 6th, 2012 12:25pm

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