Out of Office Reply

An out of office reply is an automated email response to an incoming email message. It is common in large organisations to see automated replies saying that "so and so is out of the office for x number of days and...."

 This type of message  is commonly known as an out of office reply. Out of office replies/responses are normally restricted to internal email and are not normally allowed to be sent across the Internet (see below).

However in the case of Outlook working with Microsoft exchange this message rule is applied at the exchange server and not at the Outlook client.

This means that the intended recipients PC can be switched off.

For home users/small office users who use Microsoft Outlook Express or Incredimail or any other POP3 based client you normally connect to an ISP mail server and not to a local (in house) Exchange server.

In order for you to implement the same type of out of office reply your ISP/ email provider will need to provide the same functionality.

If you are using a Yahoo email account then they call the service holiday response. If you are using another provider you will need to check if they are supported (currently most don't).

If your ISP/email provider doesn't provide this service then you can configure your email client to do it using message rules but you will have to leave your machine switched on and connected to the Internet for it to work. This is not recommended!

There are security implications involved in configuring out of office replies. Do you want anyone who sends you an email to know that you are on holiday in Disney land for 2 weeks.

There are many stories of thieves using information in out of office replies to target empty homes. If you must use them then make them as vague as possible.

You should also be careful of what you put in them as they are sent to anyone who send you are email. You wouldn't want your boss to get an out of office reply saying  "your away at an interview and will be back in tomorrow".

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