Vent about Scheduled Send (XP, SP2)

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I have a little vent — and it’s amazing me that people are not up in arms about this, why are we following like little sheep? (Hmm, should this message be moved to some sort of “vent” section here — I don’t want to take up critical, professional space.)

I’ve searched through a few emails here on the Lounge on this topic, which seem to indicate that you might make it work, if you have exactly the right combination of servers, switches, and a fixed message, but I may have missed something — so my apologies if I’ve blown this all out of proportion.

I’m from “semi-yesteryear,” computatively-speaking — late 80’s, early 90’s — when I can remember computer persons holding software company’s feet to the fire on stupid stuff of _much_ less importance than this — I can remember Ashton-Tate being reamed at a HAL-PC (Houston) users’ group for itty-bitty things — is no one going to hold Microsoft on the carpet for this, absolutely, ridiculous, major step backward from the capabilities of other mail software?

I have configured my Outlook to settings on “all accounts, offline and online,” to send / receive every 5 minutes, and yet the message in the Outbox that was scheduled for a delayed send after 430 am gets sent — when I boot up in the morning, receive email myself, and after the work day has already started for everyone.

Why is Outlook, backed by such a humongous company (monopoly) not getting their ears blistered for not having a simple scheduled send? I say, again, have we all just given up and accepted our fate from Microsoft?

Thanks,
Pat

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Is your computer turn ON all of this time?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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No, it isn’t, but the necessary mail information for my “user” self is on a Win2000 network — supposedly, that is all that is necessary? Someone mentioned that perhaps I have a local .pst, and I searched for that and do not have one on the local computer.

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Check with your email support people, they may need to do something to support this at the server level. Before retirement, in order for this to work, our computer had to be ON, no, if and/or but’s about it.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Thanks, Dave. Actually, I have checked a bit w/ my email people, and turned on the switches recommended (I forgot to mention that I have “send receive immediately when connected” checked on, also). Outlook is fairly new to us, so my ranting may have been premature, however I didn’t feel so after browsing for solutions in this Forum and on Microsoft, and finding no switch settings, no easy answers to this problem. My network people assure me that our computers do not need to remain on. Possibly, however, there is something else going on, a couple of us are going to be testing more next week. So, perhaps I “pre-ranted.” Anyway, thank you so much for your input!
Pat

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Are you using Exchange server? Scheduled send is only accurate with Exchange since it’s not afeature supported by other mail servers.

It works ok with IMO mode,as it sits in the outlook and Outlook sends it to the server – but corp mode transfers it immediately and only Exchange server can hold it for later sending.

If the sending time is important, leave your computer on and use task scheduler to send it at the appointed time. There is also a utility in the BORK that will hold the mail better with corp mode, but you need ot leave outlook running for it to work.

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> Are you using Exchange server?

Yes, we are using Exchange server.

> If the sending time is important, leave your computer on and use task scheduler to send it at the appointed time.

Well, it’s a recommendation! I know you and Dave both made it, and in a pinch, I might do that — but that totally and absolutely blows network security, and one shouldn’t have to resort to that — so I won’t w/out kicking and screaming!
Actually, I’ve got some people here looking into it — and I’m doing some further testing on my part, and by tomorrow, possibly, I’m going to possibly direct a couple of people to this thread and also, perhaps, we might be making a call to Microsoft. Thanks for your reply to my dilemma! However, ignore replying to this one, it’s possible we don’t have something configured _exactly_ right here, and I will get back to this thread immediately upon resolving this issue, or not after some escalation locally .
Thanks,
Pat

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Hi, Mary,
I said I’d get back to you, sorry it took a few days.
It turns out that (although we are using Exchange server and I have the same settings on my 2000 machine as on the ’98 machine, both w/ Outlook XP), the scheduled send absolutely does not go out on my 2000 unless the machine is on, but it will if I issue it from the ’98 machine. I’m not going to spend too much more time, then — most computers here are ’98 computers, I’ve always had a flukey 2000 , so there’s no real issue for our worksite.
One difference from our earlier email (Sharkmail on Banyan) that bothers me, although I don’t know if it has any meaning network-traffic-wise: Although I issue a send for sometime after (say) 330am, it won’t actually be delivered into the email box until the user logs on ( or, I wonder if it gets delivered to all mailboxes when the _first_ user logs on …). This is okay, but the object was to distribute the sends during non-peak times. Once again, I don’t know if this means that there will be a server slow-down if a couple hundred emails get distributed around 8am, or if these are really already distributed, and just “show up” at that time.
Any, thanks to you and Dave for your responses to my email!
thx
Pat

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Hmmm. Interesting. (Using OutlookXP and Exchange2K)
(a) Pat’s workplace are achieving a scheduled send by scheduling the send/receive function. Pat’s team figure out that scheduled sends work with W98 even if the machine is turned off (but only when machine is on in W2K). Our experts note the Task Scheduler, which always only works with the machine turned on.
( Pat, reading between the lines, this setting isn’t intended for the use to which you are putting it, I suspect. Please consider using the “do not deliver before” option. This is a setting per email, that tells Exchange to move the email to the server, and then hold it until that date/time arrives. (ie. it will work regardless of Windows version) You can automate this quite simply (ie. give yourself a standard button for deliver at 10pm, etc). For more information, see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?…kb;en-us;196072.

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Hi Folks
I’d like to add my 2 bits worth here.
It seems Pat is trying to get a Client mail application, Outlook, to do a Server’s job, and then turning the computer OFF, before it can do as asked. (That’s why scheduled tasks wont work).
The Exchange Server is the beast which should hold the message until the required time, not Outlook (which is off!).
You can use mail handling rules within Outlook also, (but these still require the PC to be ON!).
By using “do not deliver before” in the mail Options, you tell Exchange (not Outlook) about delivery limitations.
Obviously a user cannot receive mail until they turn their PC ON, Pat, but the mail can be transferred across the network to their nearest server, thus reducing network traffic during busy times. Of course, if everyone comes to work and turns their PCs on at the same time (with auto-start Outlook, you still get a network traffic hit.)

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Hi, Robin.
Thanks for your feedback! However, as I mentioned in response to Steve, I am not using the computer’s Task Scheduler to send the emails out. I hadn’t thought to check it out, but I did after your and Steve’s messages.
I suppose the network hit really isn’t any different between SharkMail on the Banyan and Outlook on the Exchange server. Even though Shark messages were delivered into the individual mail boxes prior to that user being logged in, when everybody logs in at 8am, I imagine the network traffic is the same. Also, with Shark you could say “deliver _at_ this time,” I suppose the “don’t deliver until” feature is virtually the same …
thx
Pat

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Well, I am using the switch for “schedule send/receive” (every 5 minutes, in my case) in the “Mail Setup – Send/Receive Groups” that you can get to off of the “Tools” -> “Options” selections on the Outlook toolbar — but I am not using my individual machine’s “Task Scheduler” (at least, not in my profile, and I was not the first profile on this machine .. hmmm — although that original user was installed before we upgraded to Office XP). ** Just a caveat: this machine’s particular setup has produced other anomalies, such as not being able to change printer names although I have admin privs on this machine, so I may be chasing a problem caused by a fluke.* I checked out the article that you pointed me to, and I find the information about requiring the Corporate/Workgroup installation, and I don’t seem to have that — nor does the Win98/Office XP machine I checked out. However, in KB 287496 (“New Features .. Outlook 2002”) I find the sentence, “Outlook is no longer divided into separate Internet and Exchange modes” … if that has any bearing to the conversation (I don’t know, I am so confuddled right now …) — Thanks for the response, and I will bounce this off the person I am discussing this with when he returns in the morning. — Pat

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Just wanted to say that I am using the “do not deliver before” option for the individual email, which might not have been clear in my long response to you .
thx
Pat

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