MS Outlook 2011 for MAC: unable to reply to an email received to a distribution group

MS Outlook 2011 for Mac: unable to reply to an email received to a distribution group

BACKGROUND:

Back in March this year I contacted Microsoft as I wanted to be able to send from another e-mail address for a business that I have an interest in (the emails for the domain are administered in the same Office365 account as my main email address).  I was advised I was able to do this by using distribution groups and assigning permissions via PowerShell.

Everything was working fine until I recently moved from a Window OS laptop to a MacBook Air on OS X (10.8.2) with Office 2011 for Mac.  After liaising with Microsoft Support for more than 2 weeks and them being unable to get the issue resolved I researched and found the following resolution:

Via the Microsoft Online Administration Centre (MOAC) portal.office365.com:

- I removed the distribution group and recreated ensuring the box "Make this group a security group" was checked.  - I added myself as a member as usual and checked can sent to internal/external.

Via PowerShell (Remote Desktop to Windows Machine):

1. $LiveCred = Get-Credential

2. $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange –ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $LiveCred -Authentication Basic –AllowRedirection

3. PS C:\Documents and Settings\user.COMPANY> Import-PSSession $Session

4. Set-DistributionGroup [DISTRUBUTION GROUP EMAIL ADDRESS] -GrantSendOnBehalfTo $null

5. Add-RecipientPermission  [DISTRUBUTION GROUP EMAIL ADDRESS]-trustee [MAIL ACCOUNT EMAIL ADDRESS] -accessrights sendas

6. Get-RecipientPermission  [DISTRUBUTION GROUP EMAIL ADDRESS] | select trustee,accesscontroltype,accessrightss

In MS Outlook 2011 for Mac:

1. Tools

2. Accounts…

3. + Button > Email…

4. Entered the Distribution Group Email Address and my Exchange Password

5. Username and Password being my normal Exchange Login Credentials

6. Outgoing Server – as per iPhone mail settings (entered na into Incoming Server as I don’t want IMAP to draw down emails as Exchange does that – I simply need to use for SMTP)

7. More Options… > pull Authentication down to User Name and Password and entered my usual Exchange Login Credentials

I also (not sure if this is needed) in MS Outlook 2011; Outlook > Preferences > (Exchange Account) > Advanced… > Delegates (tab) > People I am a delegate for: entered [DISTRUBUTION GROUP EMAIL ADDRESS]

As IMAP account allows you to see items from the DISTRIBUTION GROUP on the laptop only (not on iPhone or Outlook Web Access) I did a work-around:

1. Outlook

2. Preferences…

3. Composing

4. When sending messages, automatically BCC myself

5. Create a rule when an email is received from DISTRIBUTION GROUP and move it into the Sent Items (checked from iPhone that this could be seen).

CURRENT ISSUE:

I am now able to send an email from my distribution group (providing it is a newly composed email) and it is available in my sent item (via the above work-around!).

I am not, however, able to reply to an email sent to the distribution group!  I have already tried deleting the suggested contacts/email addresses.

When replying to an email sent to the distribution group the email goes straight into the outlook with the following error message:

Error:

5.7.1 Client does not have permissions to send on behalf of the from address

Details:

Mail could not be sent.

Account name: "DISTRIBUTION GROUP NAME"

Error code: -17009

I am able to copy the email out into a new email and sent it, however, this is a laborious task and there must be a way of resolving this!

Any assistance would be grealy received.

Regards