Active Directory Distribution List Problem

Ok, now here's a WEIRD one for ya. I'm stumped!

Windows 2003 SBS server.

So we've got this distribution group created that each user in the organization has been manually made a member of. For the most part it works normally -- Except for under one set of circumstances. Two things going on bascially:

1) When someone sends out a meeting request to this distribution group, somehow the entire staff is CCed automatically. This only happens with Outlook calendar invites.

2) A disabled user is still getting emails from the distribution list, though her account is disabled, and she has been removed from all groups except for the Domain Users group.

Regarding (1), is there some setting in Outlook that can be configured to automatically CC email addresses when a new meeting request is created? I don't think there is offhand...

And regarding (2), the only thing I can think of is perhaps there's a user elsewhere in AD, that's part of this distribution group, who might be configured to forward email copies to this disabled account. Unlikely, but possible I'd presume. I have no idea how I'd determine if that's the case or not though.

Any thoughts?

Hmmm,

It has been a while, but it sounds like the distribution group has been set up as "global" rather than "local". I guess if you did that, it would pick up all the members of your organisation?

My first thought is that it is some sort of user error?

Sounds like you have mail attribs set on the group. It may be that the group itself is set as a mailing list. Have a look in yer AD console. I bet you have this mail setting enabled.

What version of exchange are you using?

--TH13

TH: I think that 2003 SBS and 2003 R2 SBS only runs Exchange 2003. As far as I know, Exchange 2007 can't be installed on SBS and 2003 can't be upgraded to 2007.

Also, do you mean that you think that the domain users security group is mail enabled? I've never found any great benefit of doing this over just creating separate distribution groups...

1.) I'll have to check on how this works in my org. I have a bunch of test users setup at the moment because I'm playing around err... transitioning to 2007. I'll check it sometime tomorrow and let you know.

I never paid much attention if invitees were added to the TO list, or CC list. And just to be clear, they are only CC'd? or they get two invites... one from the TO and one from the CC? Have you noticed if it matters if they were set as optional or required invitees? Does this happen with other groups?

2.) How many members are you talking about? Would it be easy to export the users from the group and then just delete the group? You could recreate it with the same or different email address but keep the same display name. I like to change the email address just to be sure that it's been removed from everywhere in AD and there is no confusion... but, if you're only talking one AD controller then it shouldn't matter much. I'll sometimes run into problems if I change the email address because outlook caches frequent users and groups and users don't always use the directory. :( Or, simply create another group with the same users and test with that to see if you get the same results.

2.) As far as the user that was disabled still getting email via the distribution group. Does this always happen? Or, does it only happen when certain users send mail? It could possibly be a problem with an offline address book? Maybe a user copied the distribution list and created their own and is using that? Compare the members of the address list that shows up in the actual email to the one in AD.

Warning: All of the above came from a very tired and overworked mind. I do my worst thinking just before bed and as soon as I wake up. Lately thats all the time I've had for this forum. :(

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Also, do you mean that you think that the domain users security group is mail enabled?

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Yep. That's precisely what I mean.

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I think that 2003 SBS and 2003 R2 SBS only runs Exchange 2003.

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Tsk, tsk young padawan. Look at the white papers again. You can run Exchange 2000 with it but it's self defeating. ;)

--TH13