Out of Office does not function

hmmm, out of office assistant is an outlook client feature which runs only when outlook is running. if the client machine is off, then incoming mails will queue up in the server mailbox and as soon as the client machine boots up and downloads the mails, it will be processed and all mails will be sent the autoreply messages.

hope this helps.

Do you mean that the rules associated with the out Out of Office Assistant aren't running? If that is the case, answer 1 is correct. If you have a rule set up to forward messages to another address, this will only work if Outlook is running. The alternative is to place an alternate recipient under the user's mailbox -> Delivery Options.

An Out of Office reply, however, should work internally regardless of whether Outlook is running. It should also work externally, unless it is disabled underthe Internet Mail Service -> Internet Mail tab -> Advanced button, there is the option to not send Out of Office replies to the Internet.

my 2 cents.

If the user is downloading the Inbox to a PST and not leaving it on the server, then Outlook will need to remain operational for OOF to work.

Ensure that the user is not using a PST. Another workaround is to use a server side rule which can only created using Outlook 2000 and above. Have the server respond with a scripted message whenever inbound traffic hits the user's server account.

Using server side rules permits automated responses and doesn't require the user to maintain Outlook operational 7x24 or to push his Inbox back to the server for delivery of all incoming messages.