You receive the "The message could not be sent because an e-mail address was rejected but the server" error message when you send an e-mail message in Outlook Express

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This article was previously published under Q178218

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SYMPTOMS

When you send an e-mail message in Outlook Express, you may receive the following error message:

The message could not be sent because an e-mail address was rejected by the server. Subject '<title>', Account: '<name>', Server: '< WWW.XX.YYY.ZZZ >', Protocol: SMTP, Server response: '553 malformed address: <John Smith <JSMITH@XYZ.COM>>', Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 553, Error Number: 0x800CCC6E

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CAUSE

This error message can occur if you use either of the following formats to address your e-mail message:

   Format                        Example
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   name <username@domain>        John Smith <JSMITH@XYZ.COM>
   name <"<first>last"@domain>   John Smith <"<John>Smith"@XYZ.COM>

Outlook Express version 4.0 does not support these additional RFC 822 formats for one-off addressing and personal address book (PAB) addressing.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, use one of the following methods:

Address the message using the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP)addressing format <username>@<domain> (for example, jsmith@xyz.com).
Install Outlook Express version 4.01. Outlook Express version 4.01 is included with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 and can be obtained from the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ (http://www.microsoft.com/ie/)

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MORE INFORMATION

Outlook Express version 4.01 supports the additional RFC 822 one-off addresses and personal address book (PAB) addresses in the following formats:

   Format                        Example
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   name <username@domain>        John Smith <JSMITH@XYZ.COM>
   name >"<first>last"@domain>   John Smith <"<John>Smith"@XYZ.COM>

Outlook Express version 4.01 also supports using these formats when you define a new PAB entry. The address is parsed by Outlook Express when it is first typed and the e-mail address is stored as an SMTP address in the format <username>@<domain>. For example, if you type "John Smith <jsmith@xyz.com>," the name is resolved to: