Subject: Messages without From

From: "D. J. Bernstein" <[email-masked]>
Date: 7 Aug 1999 10:47:11 -0000

Outlook 98 reportedly doesn't put a From line on its outgoing messages;
instead it puts the user's address into Sender. Can anyone confirm this?

Are there any readers that have serious problems when From is missing?

---Dan

---

From: "Roger Fajman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 19:28:46 -0400 (EDT)

> > I can confirm that this is NOT true.
>
> And how exactly did you draw this conclusion? Facts, please.
>
> I've now received a more detailed report saying that ``Outlook 98
> Corporate/Workgroup, with Internet Mail Service, with the Outlook 98
> Security Patch'' doesn't create From lines.

We are heavy users of Outlook 98 with Exchange Server here.  I get
messages from it all the time.  I sent you privately a test message
from Outlook 98 so that you could see for yourself.

---

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 09:56:46 +0100

Roger,

> from Outlook 98 so that you could see for yourself.

Outlook has two ways of producing I-net messages. It can be employed (via
an Exchange MAPI service provider) as an Exchange client, as you are doing,
or directly (via an I-net MAPI service provider) as an I-net client. When
employed as an Exchange client, it is Exchange via its SMTP  gateway
(masquerading under some other name) that produces messages in RFC 822
format. When employed directly as an I-net client, it is Outlook's I-net
MAPI service provider that produces messages in RFC 822 format. Just
because the former is doing the right thing, doesn't mean the latter is
also.

In any case, I have forwarded Dan's note to the Outlook general manager for
comment.

Nick

Nick Shelness
Chief Technology Officer
Lotus Development Corp
Tel: (617) 693-7484

Assistant: Kathy McCullen
Tel: (617) 693-7521

---

From: "Roger Fajman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 11:07:44 -0400 (EDT)

> an Exchange MAPI service provider) as an Exchange client, as you are
> doing, or directly (via an I-net MAPI service provider) as an I-net
> client. When employed as an Exchange client, it is Exchange via its SMTP
> gateway (masquerading under some other name) that produces messages in RFC
> 822 format. When employed directly as an I-net client, it is Outlook's
> I-net MAPI service provider that produces messages in RFC 822 format. Just

That's true, and is the reason that I said we are using Exchange Server.
I don't use Outlook as an IMAP client, so I can't do a test with that.
There are a number of people subscribed to lists on our list server
using various forms of Outlook and I haven't seen a problem with missing
From headers.  I do see problems with malformed addresses in Reply-to
headers in some messages sent with Outlook Express.  I think it's caused
by some sort of misconfiguration.

There are also several different products that might be referred to under
the name Outlook:

   Outlook 2000
   Outlook 98
   Outlook 97
   Outlook Express (various versions)

There are Windows and Mac versions of all except Outlook 2000.

Outlook Express is the email client that ships with Internet Explorer.
It can't be used with an Exchange Server.  I'm using Outlook 98.

---

From: "Jeff Stephenson (Exchange)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 12:42:14 -0700

Dan, could you provide more detail on this?  I've got a number of questions:

1) Was the From: line completely missing, or was it present but blank?
2) Was the message in question received, or was it the copy of the message
in the sender's Sent Items folder?
3) Per Nick Shelness' comments on where the RFC 822 message is generated, is
the "Internet Mail Service" referred to below Outlook's MAPI service
provider or the Exchange SMTP gateway (which in Exchange 5.5 was called the
Internet Mail Service)?

If you could send me a copy of the header in question, it would be very
helpful.

Thanks,
-- jeff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: D. J. Bernstein [mailto:[email-masked]]
> Sent: Monday, August 09, 1999 2:24 AM
> To: [email-masked]
> Subject: Re: Messages without From
> 
> 
> Roger Fajman writes:

---

From: "Jeff Stephenson (Exchange)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 11:44:26 -0700

It turns out that there was a bug introduced in the Outlook 98 security
patch that led to a blank From: line in the copy of the message saved in the
sender's "Sent Items" folder; the From: line is properly formed in outgoing
messages.  This was fixed in the Office 2000 version of Outlook.

Dan, if you have any evidence that this problem has occurred in outgoing
mail, please let me know.

Thanks,
-- jeff 

> From: Jeff Stephenson (Exchange)
> [mailto:[email-masked]]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 1999 12:42 PM
> To: [email-masked]
> Subject: RE: Messages without From
> 
> 
> 3) Per Nick Shelness' comments on where the RFC 822 message 
> is generated, is the "Internet Mail Service" referred to below Outlook's
> MAPI service provider or the Exchange SMTP gateway (which in Exchange 5.5 
> was called the Internet Mail Service)?
>