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Q268887: XADM: Delivery Receipts Contain "Unknown" for Detail

Article: Q268887
Product(s): Microsoft Exchange
Version(s): winnt:4.0,5.0,5.5
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbExchange kbExchange500 kbExchange550 exc4 exc5 exc55
Last Modified: 23-OCT-2000

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Exchange Server, versions 4.0, 5.0, 5.5 
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SYMPTOMS
========

An Exchange Server computer may return a delivery receipt to the message sender
that contains the string "Unknown" in the To, Subject, and Sent lines.

CAUSE
=====

This problem can occur because of a limitation in X.400 delivery receipt
functionality. A feature to improve X.400 delivery receipt is included in
Exchange Server, but if a message path follows certain architectures, this
limitation is unavoidable. Exchange Server also attempts to resolve the delivery
receipt message fields from information in the message ID. The message transfer
agent (MTA) attempts to match the message ID to a message in the local Exchange
Server store. If the message is not available in the local Exchange Server
store, the message generates the "Unknown" string.

WORKAROUND
==========

To work around this problem, use only X.400 site connectors and Exchange Server
computers in an organization, or use only Internet Mail Service or remote
procedure call (RPC) site connectors to reduce or eliminate the architectures
that lead to this problem. If you create a replication connector, you can also
alleviate the problem in some configurations.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The X.400 specification generates reports based on the information in the
message envelope. The envelope may not contain the To, Subject, or Sent
information in the delivery report, and in the case of a delivery receipt,
Exchange Server does not use the envelope to fill the fields. Therefore, this
information is not returned by the X.400 system that receives the message.

To overcome this limitation of the X.400 specification, Exchange Server uses the
Content Correlator attribute. This attribute is returned in the envelope to the
originating system, which then attempts to map this by using the MTS-ID to the
original message, which allows the receiving system to extract the To, Subject,
and Sent information from the original message.

This does not work if the original message no longer exists on the originating
system.

Certain architectures also prohibit this system from working. The Exchange Server
Internet Mail Service does not preserve this attribute, and so any architecture
that crosses both an X.400 connector and an Internet Mail Service connector does
not provide fully populated delivery receipt fields.

Even if this attribute is preserved, the attribute relies on a mechanism at the
receiving end to match the Content Correlator attribute and MTS-ID that is
similar to the current Exchange Server X.400 mechanism, and as such is Exchange
Server-specific and does not work on any non-Exchange Server mail system.

Ideally, any Internet Mail Service in the message path would be able to retrieve
and translate the original message information when the Internet Mail Service
receives mail from an X.400 system. However, this is not feasible when using any
variation on this mechanism because the relay server almost certainly does not
contain a copy of the original message.

For additional information about this feature implementation, click the article
number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q147545 XADM: Delivery Receipt Has Unknown for To, Subject, and Sent



Additional query words: DR Delivery Receipt Unknown IMS foreign cc

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Keywords          : kbExchange kbExchange500 kbExchange550 exc4 exc5 exc55 
Component         : IMail IMC IMS SMTP TransportCore
Technology        : kbExchangeSearch kbExchange500 kbExchange550 kbExchange400 kbZNotKeyword2
Version           : winnt:4.0,5.0,5.5
Hardware          : ALPHA x86
Issue type        : kbprb
Solution Type     : kbnofix

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