After years of requests from Outlook users for newsgroup support in Outlook, two companies released beta versions of NNTP addins for Outlook late last week.

Mapilab developed an NNTP transport to pull UseNet posts into Outlook and post messages or replies back to the server. Since NNTP for Outlook is a MAPI transport, it requires just Outlook and works with Outlook 2000 in Corporate/Workgroup mode, as well as Outlook 2002 and Outlook 2003. See NNTP for Outlook for more information.

NewsLook is a COM add-in and requires the installation of CDO and the .NET Framework runtime. Like the NNTP transport, you use it to pull posts from a news server and post messages or replies. At this time, only Outlook 2002 and Outlook 2003 are supported. See NewsLook for more information.

Many of the Outlook MVPs are busy testing these add-ins and are pleased with the results so far. One MVP even has a NewsLook posting tip for new users: To include the message as quoted text, open the post, then click Post Reply. When you read the messages in the reading pane and choose Post Reply from the right click context menu, the message body isn't included in the post.

At this point in time, NewsLook seems to have the edge in ease of use and features. Both programs are stable, but not bug free and like all beta programs, it's "use at your own risk".

Many users and administrators are used to having the public folders mail-enabled by default as the folders are created, but when Exchange is configured in native mode, public folders are not mail-enabled by default. The administrator needs to open the Exchange System Manager and enable the public folder for email.

1. Browse to the Public Folder tree
2. Locate the folder that needs to be mail-enabled
3. Right click on the folder, select All Tasks, Mail Enable
4. Wait a few minutes for the email address to populate the properties dialog before verifying the folder's email address or creating additional SMTP addresses for the folder.

Note that Exchange 2000 and 2003 use the IPM.Post form for all messages sent to public folders (unless the messages are RTF formatted). This will be fixed in Exchange 2000-SP4 and Exchange 2003-SP1. Until the release of those service packs, you can use the change message class event sink from cdolive.com to change the message class to IPM.Note or call PSS to receive the hotfixes for Exchange 2000/2003.

A common request from Outlook users is how to use rules to filter messages with attachments. While Outlook's Rules Wizard doesn't include a rule specifically for filtering based on attachments, you can create a filter that uses attachment names found in message headers.

Begin by creating a new rule, choosing the option to Start from a blank rule and checking messages when they arrive.

Choose "With specific words in the message header" as the condition and enter the file name or extension, entering it in 'dot extension' format, so the condition reads like this: "with '.htm' or '.zip' or '.exe' in the message header". Complete the rule using your desired action.

Note that while this rule will work to filter messages containing attachment types blocked by Outlook, it will miss embedded attachments that are not listed by name in the message header. You also can't use this rule to save or delete attachments, only move, copy, or flag, etc, the message. If you need to save or delete attachments, you'll need to use VBA or a 3rd party add-in. You'll find a list of attachment processing add-ins at http://www.slipstick.com/addins/housekeeping.htm.

For more information on message processing, see Automatic Message Processing Tools.

A common question many users have when enabling Outlook 2003 for RPC over HTTP is how to enable the "Exchange over the Internet" dialog.

"I have Outlook 2003 on my desktop and it has an exchange client to an Exchange 2003 server. I'm trying to implement the RPC over HTTP client. So I followed these instructions:

On the Tools menu, click E-mail accounts, select View or change existing e-mail accounts, click Next, select the Exchange e-mail account, and then click Change. Click More Settings, then click the Connection tab.

At this point, I was supposed to see the "Exchange over the Internet" section but in my case it's just not there. This section is blank. What should I do for it to appear?"

In order to see the Exchange over the Internet section you need to have Windows XP SP1 installed along with the hotfix found in Knowledge Base article 331320, or Windows XP SP2 installed, currently in wide beta testing.

If you aren't using Windows XP SP2, download and install the hotfix.

The Office Resource Kit has more information on configuring RPC over HTTP. You can read it online at Configuring Outlook 2003 for RPC over HTTP. The Exchange FAQ has a list of common problems faced when setting up RPC over HTTP and the solutions.

Converting from other mail clients to Outlook is an issue that comes up often in forums. It's easy to convert from Outlook Express or older versions of Eudora, importing your email and address books using the import wizard. Since Outlook doesn't include and option to import e-mail and account settings from Netscape 7 and Netscape doesn't include any export options, it appears to be impossible for Netscape users to migrate their existing mail to Outlook. Users of some versions of Eudora and other email programs also have problems moving existing messages to Outlook.

It is possible to migrate to Outlook when import is not supported for the specific email application, but doing so requires a couple of extra steps or the use of a third party utility. In the case of Netscape 7, the Netscape message store compatible with Netscape 4.7, which some versions of Outlook can import. Users need to download and install Netscape 4.7 then import the mail into Outlook. If you need a copy of Netscape 4.7, look for it in the Netscape archive.

When migrating from other email clients, you may need to export your email to Outlook Express, then export to Outlook. See http://www.slipstick.com/config/convmsg.htm for a list of mail clients and the utilities or steps needed to convert old message stores to Outlook.

Note: When messages are in Outlook Express, always export from Outlook Express to Outlook, otherwise your received dates may display as the date you imported them, not the date they were received.