Hi there, We have a customer running SBS 2011 with Exchange 2010. It was recently bought to our attention that Out Of Office is not functioning for external senders. Internally, OOF works fine - only senders outside the organization do not receive OOF replies. OOF replies for external senders has been turned ON under EMC. No smart-host is being used, we switched to DNS mail routing thinking the smart-host may be blocking OOF but this is not the case. Exchange is fully patched as of 03/09/2012. Any ideas on how to approach this issue? Best Regards Arty

hi, Exchange can limit the oof message per-user or per-domain. According to your description, i think your per-domain setting is ok. So i guess whether the per-user setting has something wrong. To make sure that, we can create a new user, configure oof for him, then test again. Or you can use the cmd to check the oof setting: get-mailbox | FL *identity*,*externaloofoptions* The externaloofoptions should be external. More information please see this blog:http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2006/10/06/3395024.aspx hope can help you thanks, CastinLu TechNet Community Support Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com

Hi Castinlu, Thanks for your response. I can confirm that ExternalOofOptions is set to external for all users. I tried creating a new user and OOF does not work for the new user either. Any other ideas?Best Regards Arty

hi, >>>I can confirm that ExternalOofOptions is set to external for all users. You also check the remote domain setting, right? I think whether it is casuse by transport rule. So can you check the rule now? If you have't such rule, can you tell me more about your oof settings, i think i need more information to troubleshoot your issue. You should make sure that your oof setting is right on your outlook or owa. You should choose the option:anyone outside my ORG not my contacts only. Also if you have any security software or anti-spam protection software on your server or you client, can you try to disable them adn test your oof again. hope can help you thanks, CastinLu TechNet Community Support Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com

Hi Castinlu, When I browse to EMC > Org. Configuration > Hub Transport > Remote Domains > Default (Properties) "Allow external out-of-office messages and legacy out-of-office messages (configured by using Outlook 2003 or earlier clients, or configured on Exchange 2003 mailboxes)" is checked. Under "Message Format", "Allow automatic replies" and "Allow automatic forward" are both checked. It turns out that Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Advanced was blocking OOF! Switching off the Messaging Security component resolved the issue. Great job and thank you so much for your assistance!Best Regards Arty