MS Exchange and non-ascii characters in email addresses

[stoofa]

Hi All,
I'm looking after a large number of "Contacts" objects within MS Exchange - it's how we deal with adding people from outside of our business into email distribution groups etc.
I've received a request to add an email address that contains a ó in the mailbox name (not domain name). Exchange doesn't see this as a valid email address and will not let me create the contact object.

I know non-ascii domains have been allowed for a little while and of course, with it being down to how the local mailserver deals with mailbox names, I couldn't see there being any regulatory reason this is an unaccepted email address.
Is this something I simply cannot do with Exchnage?

 

[stoofa]

that would be an absolute nightmare to say that email address to someone. I just think it's a design thing so your only saying letters.

Do you know how to pronounce that character because I certainly don't.

No - no idea. From Wikipedia:

"In Italian, ó is an optional symbol (especially used in dictionaries) sometimes used to indicate that a stressed o should be pronounced with a close sound: córso [ˈkorso], "course", as opposed to còrso [ˈkɔrso], "Corsican" (but both are commonly written with no accent marks when the context is clear)."

We wouldn't have a local mailbox with a name like this, however this particular 3rd party does.
I'll get in touch with them and see if they can create an alias for their mailbox using am o in stead of the ó. I'm not bothered how it's pronounced as such, it would be added to email distribution groups that would receive auto-generated reports, but Exchange really doesn't seem to like it one bit.