Use Rule to Fire Off Net Send Type Messages

  • Thread starter Thread starter Thomas M.
  • Start date Start date
T

Thomas M.

Outlook 2003

I would like to know if there is a way to use an Outlook rule to send
something like a Net Send message to another computer. One possible
stumbling block is that we have the Messenger service disabled on our
machines, so Net Send itself will not work unless we enable that service.
For the few machines that the message would need to go to, we may be able to
turn on the Messenger service. Nonetheless, I would like to know if there
are any ways to accomplish this without needing to enable the Messenger
service.

You may be wondering why we want to do this. We have a mailbox that we
monitor for information on critical vulnerabilities. To decrease the
probability that a notification marked "Critical" will sit unaddressed for a
period of time until it gets noticed, we would like to setup a rule that
will fire off something like a Net Send message whenever a critical
notification is received. The Net Send command will cause a dialog box to
pop up in the middle of the screen on receiving computers. It's hard to
miss that! But, like I said, the Net Send command requires the Messenger
service, which we disable. Therefore, I would be interested in hearing any
suggestions regarding alternative methods of achieving the same basic goal.

--Tom
 
You can use rules to fire scripts - but you'll need net send enabled or a
third party utility that supports network communications - outlook alone
can't do anything like this (other than forward messages to other
addresses).

Scripts are a client side rule, so outlook will need to be running for it to
work (assuming you use Exchange).

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.
 
Outlook 2007

We've shifted gears on this a little bit. Our network does not allow Net
Send messages, so now we are thinking about having the rule fire off an
application. I setup a test rule to start Notepad, and that rule works. I
then created the following simple VB script:

Dim Message
Message=MsgBox("A critical SSOC notification has been received. Check the
Critical folder in the SSOC Notifications email box.",0,"Critical SSOC
Notification")

I compiled this into an .EXE file and edited the rule to run this file.
When a message matching the rule criteria arrives, nothing happens. A
little additional research suggests that Outlook may not be able to work
with VBScript executables.

I feel like there is something fundamental that I am missing. Can anyone
suggest a way to make this work?

--Tom

Diane Poremsky said:
You can use rules to fire scripts - but you'll need net send enabled or a
third party utility that supports network communications - outlook alone
can't do anything like this (other than forward messages to other
addresses).

Scripts are a client side rule, so outlook will need to be running for it
to work (assuming you use Exchange).

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Thomas M. said:
Outlook 2003

I would like to know if there is a way to use an Outlook rule to send
something like a Net Send message to another computer. One possible
stumbling block is that we have the Messenger service disabled on our
machines, so Net Send itself will not work unless we enable that service.
For the few machines that the message would need to go to, we may be able
to turn on the Messenger service. Nonetheless, I would like to know if
there are any ways to accomplish this without needing to enable the
Messenger service.

You may be wondering why we want to do this. We have a mailbox that we
monitor for information on critical vulnerabilities. To decrease the
probability that a notification marked "Critical" will sit unaddressed
for a period of time until it gets noticed, we would like to setup a rule
that will fire off something like a Net Send message whenever a critical
notification is received. The Net Send command will cause a dialog box
to pop up in the middle of the screen on receiving computers. It's hard
to miss that! But, like I said, the Net Send command requires the
Messenger service, which we disable. Therefore, I would be interested in
hearing any suggestions regarding alternative methods of achieving the
same basic goal.

--Tom
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
does it work if its not compiled?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Thomas M. said:
Outlook 2007

We've shifted gears on this a little bit. Our network does not allow Net
Send messages, so now we are thinking about having the rule fire off an
application. I setup a test rule to start Notepad, and that rule works.
I then created the following simple VB script:

Dim Message
Message=MsgBox("A critical SSOC notification has been received. Check the
Critical folder in the SSOC Notifications email box.",0,"Critical SSOC
Notification")

I compiled this into an .EXE file and edited the rule to run this file.
When a message matching the rule criteria arrives, nothing happens. A
little additional research suggests that Outlook may not be able to work
with VBScript executables.

I feel like there is something fundamental that I am missing. Can anyone
suggest a way to make this work?

--Tom

Diane Poremsky said:
You can use rules to fire scripts - but you'll need net send enabled or a
third party utility that supports network communications - outlook alone
can't do anything like this (other than forward messages to other
addresses).

Scripts are a client side rule, so outlook will need to be running for it
to work (assuming you use Exchange).

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Thomas M. said:
Outlook 2003

I would like to know if there is a way to use an Outlook rule to send
something like a Net Send message to another computer. One possible
stumbling block is that we have the Messenger service disabled on our
machines, so Net Send itself will not work unless we enable that
service. For the few machines that the message would need to go to, we
may be able to turn on the Messenger service. Nonetheless, I would like
to know if there are any ways to accomplish this without needing to
enable the Messenger service.

You may be wondering why we want to do this. We have a mailbox that we
monitor for information on critical vulnerabilities. To decrease the
probability that a notification marked "Critical" will sit unaddressed
for a period of time until it gets noticed, we would like to setup a
rule that will fire off something like a Net Send message whenever a
critical notification is received. The Net Send command will cause a
dialog box to pop up in the middle of the screen on receiving computers.
It's hard to miss that! But, like I said, the Net Send command requires
the Messenger service, which we disable. Therefore, I would be
interested in hearing any suggestions regarding alternative methods of
achieving the same basic goal.

--Tom
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
If I execute the file from the command line, or by double-clicking it in
Windows Explorer, they yes it does work. If I try to make the rule execute
the .VBS file then it does not work. So I figured that compiling it into an
..EXE file and using the "start application" option might work. But there
seems to be some hang-up with that approach.

--Tom

Diane Poremsky said:
does it work if its not compiled?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Thomas M. said:
Outlook 2007

We've shifted gears on this a little bit. Our network does not allow Net
Send messages, so now we are thinking about having the rule fire off an
application. I setup a test rule to start Notepad, and that rule works.
I then created the following simple VB script:

Dim Message
Message=MsgBox("A critical SSOC notification has been received. Check
the Critical folder in the SSOC Notifications email box.",0,"Critical
SSOC Notification")

I compiled this into an .EXE file and edited the rule to run this file.
When a message matching the rule criteria arrives, nothing happens. A
little additional research suggests that Outlook may not be able to work
with VBScript executables.

I feel like there is something fundamental that I am missing. Can anyone
suggest a way to make this work?

--Tom

Diane Poremsky said:
You can use rules to fire scripts - but you'll need net send enabled or
a third party utility that supports network communications - outlook
alone can't do anything like this (other than forward messages to other
addresses).

Scripts are a client side rule, so outlook will need to be running for
it to work (assuming you use Exchange).

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Outlook 2003

I would like to know if there is a way to use an Outlook rule to send
something like a Net Send message to another computer. One possible
stumbling block is that we have the Messenger service disabled on our
machines, so Net Send itself will not work unless we enable that
service. For the few machines that the message would need to go to, we
may be able to turn on the Messenger service. Nonetheless, I would
like to know if there are any ways to accomplish this without needing
to enable the Messenger service.

You may be wondering why we want to do this. We have a mailbox that we
monitor for information on critical vulnerabilities. To decrease the
probability that a notification marked "Critical" will sit unaddressed
for a period of time until it gets noticed, we would like to setup a
rule that will fire off something like a Net Send message whenever a
critical notification is received. The Net Send command will cause a
dialog box to pop up in the middle of the screen on receiving
computers. It's hard to miss that! But, like I said, the Net Send
command requires the Messenger service, which we disable. Therefore, I
would be interested in hearing any suggestions regarding alternative
methods of achieving the same basic goal.

--Tom
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
try giving the exe run as admin rights.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Thomas M. said:
If I execute the file from the command line, or by double-clicking it in
Windows Explorer, they yes it does work. If I try to make the rule
execute the .VBS file then it does not work. So I figured that compiling
it into an .EXE file and using the "start application" option might work.
But there seems to be some hang-up with that approach.

--Tom

Diane Poremsky said:
does it work if its not compiled?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Thomas M. said:
Outlook 2007

We've shifted gears on this a little bit. Our network does not allow
Net Send messages, so now we are thinking about having the rule fire off
an application. I setup a test rule to start Notepad, and that rule
works. I then created the following simple VB script:

Dim Message
Message=MsgBox("A critical SSOC notification has been received. Check
the Critical folder in the SSOC Notifications email box.",0,"Critical
SSOC Notification")

I compiled this into an .EXE file and edited the rule to run this file.
When a message matching the rule criteria arrives, nothing happens. A
little additional research suggests that Outlook may not be able to work
with VBScript executables.

I feel like there is something fundamental that I am missing. Can
anyone suggest a way to make this work?

--Tom

You can use rules to fire scripts - but you'll need net send enabled or
a third party utility that supports network communications - outlook
alone can't do anything like this (other than forward messages to other
addresses).

Scripts are a client side rule, so outlook will need to be running for
it to work (assuming you use Exchange).

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Outlook 2003

I would like to know if there is a way to use an Outlook rule to send
something like a Net Send message to another computer. One possible
stumbling block is that we have the Messenger service disabled on our
machines, so Net Send itself will not work unless we enable that
service. For the few machines that the message would need to go to, we
may be able to turn on the Messenger service. Nonetheless, I would
like to know if there are any ways to accomplish this without needing
to enable the Messenger service.

You may be wondering why we want to do this. We have a mailbox that
we monitor for information on critical vulnerabilities. To decrease
the probability that a notification marked "Critical" will sit
unaddressed for a period of time until it gets noticed, we would like
to setup a rule that will fire off something like a Net Send message
whenever a critical notification is received. The Net Send command
will cause a dialog box to pop up in the middle of the screen on
receiving computers. It's hard to miss that! But, like I said, the
Net Send command requires the Messenger service, which we disable.
Therefore, I would be interested in hearing any suggestions regarding
alternative methods of achieving the same basic goal.

--Tom
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I've been running as an admin while testing this.

A buddy of mine suggested that this might actually be a security feature of
Outlook aimed at preventing malicious code from automatically executing. I
suppose that could be the case, but where this is a client-side rule it
seems a bit of a stretch that this would be a security feature. When you
think about it, to exploit a rule to execute code a hacker would first have
to trick a user into clicking something that creates the rule. Well, if a
hacker can trick the user into clicking something, why not just make that
link run the code directly? Still, knowing that Microsoft is very sensitive
about security loopholes in products, maybe they did decide to shutdown this
option for security reasons.

--Tom

Diane Poremsky said:
try giving the exe run as admin rights.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Thomas M. said:
If I execute the file from the command line, or by double-clicking it in
Windows Explorer, they yes it does work. If I try to make the rule
execute the .VBS file then it does not work. So I figured that compiling
it into an .EXE file and using the "start application" option might work.
But there seems to be some hang-up with that approach.

--Tom

Diane Poremsky said:
does it work if its not compiled?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Outlook 2007

We've shifted gears on this a little bit. Our network does not allow
Net Send messages, so now we are thinking about having the rule fire
off an application. I setup a test rule to start Notepad, and that
rule works. I then created the following simple VB script:

Dim Message
Message=MsgBox("A critical SSOC notification has been received. Check
the Critical folder in the SSOC Notifications email box.",0,"Critical
SSOC Notification")

I compiled this into an .EXE file and edited the rule to run this file.
When a message matching the rule criteria arrives, nothing happens. A
little additional research suggests that Outlook may not be able to
work with VBScript executables.

I feel like there is something fundamental that I am missing. Can
anyone suggest a way to make this work?

--Tom

You can use rules to fire scripts - but you'll need net send enabled
or a third party utility that supports network communications -
outlook alone can't do anything like this (other than forward messages
to other addresses).

Scripts are a client side rule, so outlook will need to be running for
it to work (assuming you use Exchange).

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Outlook 2003

I would like to know if there is a way to use an Outlook rule to send
something like a Net Send message to another computer. One possible
stumbling block is that we have the Messenger service disabled on our
machines, so Net Send itself will not work unless we enable that
service. For the few machines that the message would need to go to,
we may be able to turn on the Messenger service. Nonetheless, I
would like to know if there are any ways to accomplish this without
needing to enable the Messenger service.

You may be wondering why we want to do this. We have a mailbox that
we monitor for information on critical vulnerabilities. To decrease
the probability that a notification marked "Critical" will sit
unaddressed for a period of time until it gets noticed, we would like
to setup a rule that will fire off something like a Net Send message
whenever a critical notification is received. The Net Send command
will cause a dialog box to pop up in the middle of the screen on
receiving computers. It's hard to miss that! But, like I said, the
Net Send command requires the Messenger service, which we disable.
Therefore, I would be interested in hearing any suggestions regarding
alternative methods of achieving the same basic goal.

--Tom
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
It very well could be security - it is quite tight in outlook. But just
logging on with an admin acct is not always enough - sometimes you need to
run the exe as admin, especially if you use Vista.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Thomas M. said:
I've been running as an admin while testing this.

A buddy of mine suggested that this might actually be a security feature
of Outlook aimed at preventing malicious code from automatically
executing. I suppose that could be the case, but where this is a
client-side rule it seems a bit of a stretch that this would be a security
feature. When you think about it, to exploit a rule to execute code a
hacker would first have to trick a user into clicking something that
creates the rule. Well, if a hacker can trick the user into clicking
something, why not just make that link run the code directly? Still,
knowing that Microsoft is very sensitive about security loopholes in
products, maybe they did decide to shutdown this option for security
reasons.

--Tom

Diane Poremsky said:
try giving the exe run as admin rights.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Thomas M. said:
If I execute the file from the command line, or by double-clicking it in
Windows Explorer, they yes it does work. If I try to make the rule
execute the .VBS file then it does not work. So I figured that
compiling it into an .EXE file and using the "start application" option
might work. But there seems to be some hang-up with that approach.

--Tom

does it work if its not compiled?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Outlook 2007

We've shifted gears on this a little bit. Our network does not allow
Net Send messages, so now we are thinking about having the rule fire
off an application. I setup a test rule to start Notepad, and that
rule works. I then created the following simple VB script:

Dim Message
Message=MsgBox("A critical SSOC notification has been received. Check
the Critical folder in the SSOC Notifications email box.",0,"Critical
SSOC Notification")

I compiled this into an .EXE file and edited the rule to run this
file. When a message matching the rule criteria arrives, nothing
happens. A little additional research suggests that Outlook may not
be able to work with VBScript executables.

I feel like there is something fundamental that I am missing. Can
anyone suggest a way to make this work?

--Tom

You can use rules to fire scripts - but you'll need net send enabled
or a third party utility that supports network communications -
outlook alone can't do anything like this (other than forward
messages to other addresses).

Scripts are a client side rule, so outlook will need to be running
for it to work (assuming you use Exchange).

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Outlook 2003

I would like to know if there is a way to use an Outlook rule to
send something like a Net Send message to another computer. One
possible stumbling block is that we have the Messenger service
disabled on our machines, so Net Send itself will not work unless we
enable that service. For the few machines that the message would
need to go to, we may be able to turn on the Messenger service.
Nonetheless, I would like to know if there are any ways to
accomplish this without needing to enable the Messenger service.

You may be wondering why we want to do this. We have a mailbox that
we monitor for information on critical vulnerabilities. To decrease
the probability that a notification marked "Critical" will sit
unaddressed for a period of time until it gets noticed, we would
like to setup a rule that will fire off something like a Net Send
message whenever a critical notification is received. The Net Send
command will cause a dialog box to pop up in the middle of the
screen on receiving computers. It's hard to miss that! But, like I
said, the Net Send command requires the Messenger service, which we
disable. Therefore, I would be interested in hearing any suggestions
regarding alternative methods of achieving the same basic goal.

--Tom
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
We're running XP SP3.

I'm familiar with doing a right-click and selecting "Run as," and I've also
done "run as" from the command line, but how would I make an Outlook rule
launch the executable with admin credentials?

Also, I came across a tidbit of information regarding rules with custom
actions. I am still trying to find that article, but if I recall correctly,
the custom actions need to be written in C++ and packaged up as a DLL.
Could a rule fire off a custom action that in turn displays a message box?

--Tom
 
Correct on custom actions - they need to be written in C++. C++ can create
dialogs, so yes, it could do a msgbox.
Have you tried a shortcut to the exe? Outlook 2003 and 2007 support running
a script using rules - the script goes in the VB editor so anything that you
can call from VBA should work.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.
 
I was just thinking that it might make sense to come at this from a little
different angle. Until now, I've been trying to do this via a rule that
runs some kind of script or custom action, because that's an area of Outlook
where I have some experience.

However, ultimately any solution will need to run server-side. The reason
for this requirement is that the mailbox on which the solution will act is a
common mailbox that we monitor, but no one fires up Outlook using that
account. In other words, I start Outlook and login using my personal
account, and I have Outlook configured to also open the common mailbox that
we monitor. Our desire is that every a message comes in that meets a
certain criteria (e.g.. Certain text in the From field AND "Critical" in the
subject line) a server-side process, be that a rule or something else, will
generate some form of pop-up message box on our machines. It seems to me
like that would eliminate any kind of solution that requires a script file
on the client, so maybe I've been barking up the wrong tree here.

It's probably a better idea to ask, "What server-side processes, if any, can
achieve the functionality that we are seeking," and then just work from
there. So...

What server-side processes, if any, can achieve the functionality that we
are seeking? ;-)

--Tom
 
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