Comments on: Outlook 2003 and missing Message-ID http://pessoal.org/blog/2005/07/27/outlook-2003-and-missing-message-id/ Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:49:42 -0300 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: jmt http://pessoal.org/blog/2005/07/27/outlook-2003-and-missing-message-id/comment-page-1/#comment-5 jmt Mon, 21 Nov 2005 12:48:53 +0000 http://pessoal.org/blog/?p=30#comment-5 I discovered this message ID problem when trying to email folks using Eudora's email server. The messages weren't arriving. Fortunately I knew the folks managing the server and they were able to document the "SPAM" I was sending (Eudora was configured to treat email without message IDs as SPAM). I complained at length to MS and they eventually confessed that Outlook 2003 was designed to omit the message ID, and then offered my money back on the purchase. I would have immediately taken them up on the offer if there were a viable product substitute for Outlook. So I ended up finding another solution to the problem. I installed a small SMTP server utility on my PC called MailExpress Lite (www.idataexpress.com). Cost: US$19.95. All my Outlook 2003 email gets directed through it and it adds a (user-configurable) message ID to the email header. No more delivery problems, plus some other added benefits like sending email through SMTP-restricted wireless access points in coffee shops and airports, and proof of delivery to the recipients' POP server. So in the end I am not too unhappy. Still, the fact that a customer has to add an SMTP server to his PC to get a disfunctional MS email product to work reliably is a pretty sad statement about the devolution of MS software. And MS is certainly bold to charge what it does for what is undeniably a sub-optimal product. jmt I discovered this message ID problem when trying to email folks using Eudora’s email server. The messages weren’t arriving. Fortunately I knew the folks managing the server and they were able to document the “SPAM” I was sending (Eudora was configured to treat email without message IDs as SPAM).

I complained at length to MS and they eventually confessed that Outlook 2003 was designed to omit the message ID, and then offered my money back on the purchase. I would have immediately taken them up on the offer if there were a viable product substitute for Outlook.

So I ended up finding another solution to the problem. I installed a small SMTP server utility on my PC called MailExpress Lite (www.idataexpress.com). Cost: US$19.95. All my Outlook 2003 email gets directed through it and it adds a (user-configurable) message ID to the email header. No more delivery problems, plus some other added benefits like sending email through SMTP-restricted wireless access points in coffee shops and airports, and proof of delivery to the recipients’ POP server.

So in the end I am not too unhappy. Still, the fact that a customer has to add an SMTP server to his PC to get a disfunctional MS email product to work reliably is a pretty sad statement about the devolution of MS software. And MS is certainly bold to charge what it does for what is undeniably a sub-optimal product.

jmt

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