Hi We have exchange server 2007 and use a smarthost, internal OOO works fine, the problem only occurs with external OOO, we know that this is due to the smarthost rejecting it as the Return Path is empty as it is comlying to the RFC standards. I have tried writing a trnasport rule to add a generic address to the return path as shown below: Apply rule to messages sent to users Outside the organization and when the Subject field contains Out of Office set Return-Path with info@domian.com But I believe that the Return-Path header field is unable to be changed along with various other fields. So my question is, is there any way of changing the return path field so that OOO will work when sending to external recipients. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Regards Stuart

On Thu, 3 Jun 2010 15:10:05 +0000, stuwba wrote: >We have exchange server 2007 and use a smarthost, internal OOO works fine, the problem only occurs with external OOO, we know that this is due to the smarthost rejecting it as the Return Path is empty as it is comlying to the RFC standards. > >I have tried writing a trnasport rule to add a generic address to the return path as shown below: > >Apply rule to messages sent to users Outside the organization and when the Subject field contains Out of Office set Return-Path with info@domian.com > >But I believe that the Return-Path header field is unable to be changed along with various other fields. > >So my question is, is there any way of changing the return path field so that OOO will work when sending to external recipients. > >Any help would be greatly appreciated. The Return-Path should be inserted by the receiving server, not the sending server. The value is, or should be, the address of the sender which is usually take from the MAIL FROM command. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Hi, This is indeed the problem. In Exchange 2007, the OOF behaviour has changed because sending the OOF messages with blank sender which will prohibit the message to bounce. This is by design and not configurable. But for the smarhost, it doesn't allow the blank sender to be relayed. Thus, the workaround in this scenario is use auto reply messages to instead of OOF messages or configure Smart host to accept messages with empty return path. Thanks Allen

Allen and Rich, I would like to thank you both for the replys. Rich - From what I understand from you reply you are saying that the smarthost should insert the return path? Allen - There is no way the smarthost will chnaged their policy and we do no want to swutch. I don't want to have users setting up auto replys through rules, do you know if there is a way I can do this server side? Thanks for your help guys. Stuart

On Wed, 9 Jun 2010 12:00:00 +0000, stuwba wrote: > > >Allen and Rich, > >I would like to thank you both for the replys. > >Rich - From what I understand from you reply you are saying that the smarthost should insert the return path? No. A server in the target domain. >Allen - There is no way the smarthost will chnaged their policy and we do no want to swutch. I don't want to have users setting up auto replys through rules, do you know if there is a way I can do this server side? Why not just send the e-mail directly? --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Hi, When the delivery SMTP server makes the "final delivery" of a message, it inserts a return-path line at the beginning of the mail data. Here, final delivery means the message has left the SMTP environment. Normally, this would mean it had been delivered to the destination user or an associated mail drop. For more information, please refer to the below article: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2821.html As I said, that's by design and not configurable on server side. Thanks Allen