At 04:47 AM 1/1/98 EST, Roger Fajman wrote:
>
>Microsoft has several email products:
>
>   Microsoft Mail for PCs
>   Microsoft Mail for the Macintosh
>   Microsoft Exchange
>   Microsoft Outlook (a client only)
>   Microsoft Outlook Express (an Internet Mail client bundled with
>                              Internet Explorer)
>
>I believe what you are dealing with here is Outlook Express.  In
>earlier incarnations it was called Microsoft Internet Mail.  That
>doesn't help get the problem corrected, but it increases your
>credibility to use the right names for things.  I'm not certain what
>the configuration error in the client is that causes the problem.  I
>have seen the problem a number of times.
>

        I tend to see insufficient "Reply-To" addresses from both Microsoft
Internet Mail and Microsoft Outlook Express mailers.  I can not address
configuration of Outlook Express, but I have been able to learn where the
problem lies with MS Internet Mail.  "Internet Mail" is included with most
bundles of MS Internet Explorer versions 2 and 3.

        When the user attempts to start the mail program for the first time, the
program displays a "Set-up Wizard" which prompts the user for several
pieces of information, but omits the "Reply-To" address.  The place to
specify this address is deeply buried and the user is not likely to find it
even if he or she is looking for it.  Here are step by step instructions
which you may pass on to your subscribers:

1. At the main program screen select "Mail" from the top menu bar.

2. Choose "Options.." from the pull-down menu.  (It is the selection at the
bottom of this menu.)

3.  A dialog box will pop up on your screen.  This dialog box has several
tabs along the top edge.  Choose the tab labelled "Server."

4. Here you will see text boxes with your email account information.  Near
the bottom of the dialog box is a button labelled "Advanced Settings..."
Click on this button.

5.  Another dialog box labelled "Mail Server Advanced Settings" will now
appear. Near the bottom of this box is a text entry box for "Reply To:"
Put your email address in this text box.

6.  Click on the "OK" button to close the dialog box.

7.  This will take you back to the "Options" dialog box.  Click on the
Apply button at the bottom in order to save these settings.

8.  Now click on the "OK" button to close this dialog box.


        It is a sad statement that all those legions of coders in Redmond should
bury the "Reply To:" configuration under something labelled Advanced Server
Settings.  Isn't it an interesting comment on Microsoft's products that, of
all the subscribers to this list, none of us has sufficient familiarity
with that mail client to answer the basic question of fixing the "Reply-To"
problem?  (I had to break down and download the thing in order to find out
what was going wrong.)


Doren Burrell
Discovery Channel Online