XCON: MSMail Read Receipts Missing Subject: and To: Information

When sending a message from an MS Mail 3.x client with a Read Receipt (RR) request, the RR reply may come back to the client without the To and Subject fields.

There are three instances in which this will happen.

Case 1

Microsoft Exchange Server is connecting to another Exchange organization or third party messaging platform via X.400 connectors.

Case 2

The Microsoft Exchange Server is connecting to the same Exchange organization, however, the X.400 site addressing between the sites is different at the ADMD and/or PRMD level. An example of this would be:

   Site A
      C=US;A=TELCO1;P=SiteA

   Site B
      C=US;A=TELCO2;P=SiteB
				

The Read Receipt sent by the MS Mail client is in a MAPI format. This MAPI request is converted by Microsoft Exchange Server to an X400 Read Receipt request that does not support some of the MAPI fields for the To and Subject lines.

This situation is by design because the MS Mail client was not designed with X.400 in mind.

Case 3

If the Microsoft Exchange Server computers are connected with X.400 connectors using the Connected Sites tab, and directory replication is enabled, there is a chance that the MAPI information will be stripped from the message during a conversion. The Microsoft Exchange Server computers should pass the information along, however, if more than two hops are required, an X400 conversion may take place.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in versions 4.0 and 5.0 of Microsoft Exchange. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Setting up Site Connectors in place of the X.400 connectors will fix this problem and is recommended if the existing topology warrants such a change.