XCON: Recipient Address Corrupted on Outbound Messages to EDK Gateway

ID: Q185592

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

Recipient addresses on messages sent through an EDK (Exchange Development Kit) gateway are corrupted. As a result, the message cannot be delivered to the recipient. This occurs if the address is in the form:

FAX:username@(xxx)xxxxxxx
where (xxx)xxxxxxx is a phone number with an area code in parentheses that starts with a 0, 1, or 2. Also, where FAX is the address type defined by the EDK gateway. The recipient name is corrupted to:
FAX:username@E9368080
The corruption, in this case the letter E, is different depending on the area code provided.


CAUSE

The use of parentheses in the address triggers the corruption. Parentheses are used in an X.400 address to portray characters such as the at sign (@), the exclamation mark (!), or the percent sign (%) in an address. The area code of this fax address is incorrectly interpreted as a non-printable string of characters. This occurs for any three digits enclosed in parentheses, where the first digit is a 0, 1, or 2.


RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Exchange Server version 5.5. For more information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q191014 XGEN: How to Obtain the Latest Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Exchange Server version 5.5. This problem was first corrected in Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 3.


MORE INFORMATION

Exchange Server uses RFC 987 to interpret parentheses in an address. RFC 987 provides a method of mapping non-printable characters to printable ones for a legal X.400 address. Most X.400 address attributes have to be printable characters as defined in Table 4 of Recommendation X.409. For example, RFC 987 specifies the following: 


   Non-Printable Characters      X.400 Printable Characters
   @                            (a)
   %                            (p)
   !                            (b)
   "                            (q)
   _                            (u)
   3digits                       3digits


Exchange Server implements RFC 987 in Escprint.dll. The fixed files for this issue add implementation for a more recent RFC that obsoletes RFC. The current RFC is RFC 2156. 


Keywords          : exc55sp2fix XCON 
Version           : winnt:5.5
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: August 3, 1999