Very Computer

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How to eliminate Microsoft Outlook's propensity to deliver duplicate email

Eunice Santorini Revision 1.00 July 13, 2002
Current Revision: 1.00 July 13, 2002
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DEFINITION:
 Duplicate emails referred to herein are those messages with the same
 message ID, save for case, or leading white space (these are typical
 transformations which may have occurred in transit via prior MTA,
 Listserv, or Majordomo processing).

KEYWORDS:
 Duplicate Message-ID Filter Outlook Exchange

SOLUTION:
0. As you know, traditional (aka sendmail-based) users never receive
   duplicate emails because, traditionally, they employ powerful well-known
   filters (first introduced more than a dozen years ago) such as procmail
   (i.e., process mail) which eliminates all duplicate emails on sight.

   For example, this well-known three-line text file instantly traps all
   duplicate message ids regardless of case or leading white spaces:
     :0 Wh: duplicates.lock
     * ?formail -D 65536 msgid.cache
     duplicates

   However, Microsoft Exchange/Outlook users can not avail themselves of
   these extremely well known and efficient duplicate-email filters.
   Amazingly, it's almost as if Microsoft was (is still?) clueless about
   mail users' needs when they designed (supported?) Outlook/Exchange.

   Face it: Intelligent users don't like a mail user agent which can't
            even perform the simplest of all MUA tasks.

   So, what do we do for those hapless users who made the mistake of
   moving off traditional sendmail-based email onto Microsoft
   Outlook/Exchange?

1. I would like to write up the solution for the poor souls who moved
   off of sendmail-based email onto Outlook/Exchange based email.

   Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the inability of
   Outlook/Exchange to handle this simple task.

   So, we're on our own for those punished Exchange/Outlook users.

   Any ideas for their salvation?

On 13 Jul 2002 20:28:07 -0700,

What solution would you expect to find in a Unix newsgroup, other than
"go back to sendmail and procmail"?

Quote:> How to eliminate Microsoft Outlook's propensity to deliver duplicate email
> Any ideas?

The place to start is where the filtering is done.
Is the filtering done by outlook or exchange?

If it's by outlook, you're hosed because outlook isn't supposed to
be a mail program (it's really just a newsreader).

If filtering is by exchange, then you probably stand a chance of
finding an answer.