Sending e-mail to a distribution group in asp.net

[Brian Hanson]

Hi,

I have an asp.net (vb) app where I am creating a Crystal Report,
exporting it to a .pdf file and then e-mailing that report, as an
attachment, to several users using System.Web.Mail.MailMessage(). One
of the properties is MailMessage.To which is my recipient list. All
is working well.

However, when I substitute individual email addresses in the
MailMessage.To string with the name of a distribution group, it fails
never giving an error.

Has anyone run across this before?

Thanks,
Brian

[Steven Cheng[MSFT]]

Hi Brian,
Thanks for posting in the community!
From your description, you used the "System.Web.Mail.MailMessage" buildin
components to send mail. This works well when you set the MailMessage's
"To" address as individual address( the [e-mail] format?). However, you
found it didn't work if you use some certain distribute group's name as the
address to send the mail ,yes?
If there is anything I misunderstood, please feel free to let me know.

As for this problem, is the "group name" string you mentioned just the
certain group's alias? For example a certain newgroup or some other groups
such as Yahoo group?
If so, I think the alias (a friendly name) didn't work because each email
be sent need a specifyed "To" address, which need to be a valid address
which is formated as "[e-mail]". The alias for friendly name is just used
to help user to remember it. And the mapping between the alias and their
actual address are usually done by some Mail client tools such as outlook
or some other web access tools.
So we need to specify the actual name of the group to the "To" member of
the MailMessage if we want to send a mail to that group.
And here is a FAQ list on the "System.Web.Mail" components,
#System.Web.Mail FAQ
http://systemwebmail.com/faq.aspx

There are detailed description on how to define friendly name(alias) for
MailMessage's "From" or "To" field:
#2.4 How do I change the FROM address to a friendly name?
http://systemwebmail.com/faq/2.4.aspx

#2.5 How do I change the TO address to a friendly name?
http://systemwebmail.com/faq/2.5.aspx

Please check out the above items. If you have anything unclear, please feel
free to post here.
Regards,

Steven Cheng
Microsoft Online Support

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[Brian Hanson]

Hi Steven,

Thank you for your reply and I apologize for being vague. The group
name I was refering to was indeed an Outlook mail group or distribution
list.

In my app, this works and both Bill and Joe get the message.

MailMessage.To = “Bi**@abc.com; Jo*@abc.com”
However, my recipient list is not static and instead I would like to
send to an Outlook mail group.

For example, I have a group called TestGroup that has an SMTP address of
“Te*******@abc.com” And TestGroup has 2 members; Bi**@abc.com and
Jo*@abc.com .

I am trying to get this to work:

MailMessage.To = “Te*******@abc.com”
I am trying to avoid maintaining email addresses in an asp.net
application especially since they are already maintained in mail groups
in Outlook.
Thanks again,
Brian
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[Steven Cheng[MSFT]]

Hi Brian,
Thanks for your followup. Based on your further reply, you're able to send
the mail using the detailed reciever list such as
"af**@aa.com;bb*@bb.com;cc*@cc.com..." but not able to via their group's
smtp address?
I've also done a test on my side. I send the mail via the following code

System.Web.Mail.MailMessage msg = new System.Web.Mail.MailMessage();
msg.From= "myemailaddress";
msg.To = txtSmtpAddress.Text;
msg.Subject = "Hello, just a test.";
msg.Body = "Sorry for disturbing you!";
System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail.SmtpServer = "smarthost";
System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail.Send( msg );

I used a local group in our Active Dirctory for test. It seems that this
works well, I'm able to send to the group via it's smtpaddress.

In addition, have you tryied send to any other groups? Does this problem
occurs every group you send?
I think you can also try using OutLook to do the same test to see whether
the same problem remains. I think there must be something else which cause
the problem. Please check out it and let know if you got any progress.
Regards,

Steven Cheng
Microsoft Online Support

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[Brian Hanson]

Hi,

Thanks for working on this and you were right, it was something else on
my end.

My company is in the process of changing domain names, and the group I
set up to test with only used the new domain name. Somewhere in some
remote Exchange Server, it was adding an additional address with the old
domain name in an effort not to route the thing around the country to
send an email four desks away. All along though, though, I was able to
successfully send to this group new group via Outlook and even AOL, so I
thought the group was fine. Next, I used a generic dumping account as
my from address and never saw the undeliverable message that said it was
looking for the old domain address as well as the new. It was not until
I put my address in the from address that I saw the error.
Thanks again and sorry to send you on a goose chase.

Brian
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[Steven Cheng[MSFT]]

Hi Brian,
Thanks for your followup. I'm glad that we've figured out the problem. It's
my pleasure work with you. Next time if you meet any problem or need help,
please feel free to post here.

Regards,

Steven Cheng
Microsoft Online Support

Get Secure! www.microsoft.com/security
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rights.)

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