Domains4Less, Outlook.com Custom Domain and CNAME Records

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nzkiwiman

2585 posts

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#207403 22-Dec-2016 16:38

Looking for some assistance
Back when Microsoft were offering the ability to have custom domains hosted on Outlook.com (for free), I finally decided to purchase a domain name from Domains4Less.co.nz and managed to configure enough in the domain settings so that my email was delivered to Outlook.com (website) as well as my Outlook 2016.

Today Microsoft have emailed saying as part of changes made earlier in the year, I need to reconnect my Outlook 2016 to continue to receive my email
URL: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Reconnect-Outlook-2016-or-Outlook-2013-to-Outlook-com-for-uninterrupted-email-access-cda1751d-9503-40bf-bf76-e79454ac5eb3?ui=en-US&rs=en-NZ&ad=NZ

Further down the page it mentions that in order to connect a custom domain to Outlook, I need to add a CNAME record to my domain to point to autodiscover.microsoft.com and points to a Microsoft website that references GoDaddy for help.

When I log into Domains4Less and navigate to adding a CNAME record, I have two boxes
Prefix:
Destination Address:

I have no idea what to put as the prefix and am very confused what I need to do.
Assuming the destination address is autodiscover.microsoft.com

Has anyone recently gone through this and know what I do?

timmmay

20581 posts

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#1693942 22-Dec-2016 16:42

I read that page but i have no idea what it has to do with DNS. It seem to be describing a change in how your email client connects to Outlook.com to check your email.

guyl

120 posts

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ID Verified

#1693945 22-Dec-2016 16:46

I have no experience with this particular problem, but it sounds like the info they require is:

prefix - the cname record that MS want you to add. Let's say they want autodiscover.mydomain.com - then autodiscover will be the prefix (Which they then append to your domain)

Destination address - this is the REAL address that the CNAME is pointing to - in this case autodiscover.microsoft.com

Hope that helps you.

dan

1134 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#1693946 22-Dec-2016 16:47

you need to create a cname record that points autodiscover.yourdomain.xx to autodiscover.microsoft.com

Prefix: autodiscover (the end result should be autodiscover.yourdomain.xx) but its likely you just need to type autodiscover only, and it will fill out the rest
Destination Address: autodiscover.microsoft.com

Oriphix

523 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1693949 22-Dec-2016 16:56

So it looks like this will affect you as they are upgrading the service account to the second paragraph.

Here is the link that describes what each record does.

https://support.webhost.co.nz/index.php?/domains4less/Knowledgebase/Article/View/204/0/how-do-i-setupchange-my-dns-records-acnamemx-txt-etc

CNAME is basically an alias. Say for example you have www.bob.com and you want it to go to www.tom.com you can add that as a record. (I am not sure what intrusions you were given to add.

The prefix would be the record that people will type on there browser. The destination is where do you want that record to go.

Example:

So from the above you can see there is office 365 records and they are pointing to office 365 destinations. The www record is pointing to a external webhost

nzkiwiman

2585 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1693950 22-Dec-2016 16:58

(at work at the moment and do not have access to my home setup, so do not have all the information)

In the past, when setting up Office 2013 and later Office 2016 to connect to my custom domain, I could not use Outlooks Autodiscover process to connect to my email because Outlook had no idea about my domain. However I have always been able to manually enter the server address to connect.

I believe as part of the greater Outlook changes, the manual server address I have added has been removed
Or my current connection uses Active Sync and this is being removed in favour of an Exchange connection.

dan:

you need to create a cname record that points autodiscover.yourdomain.xx to autodiscover.microsoft.com

Prefix: autodiscover (the end result should be autodiscover.yourdomain.xx) but its likely you just need to type autodiscover only, and it will fill out the rest
Destination Address: autodiscover.microsoft.com

^ Thanks

Before posting this question, I entered those settings in the Domain control panel but then removed as I wasn't at all confident it was correct.
I'll make the change now and see what happens when I get home.

nzkiwiman

2585 posts

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Subscriber

#1694224 23-Dec-2016 10:52

Thanks everyone, added in the CNAME settings and was able to successfully get Outlook 2016 to autodiscover my custom domain, and is now connected via Exchange rather than ActiveSync

UncleArthur

197 posts

Master Geek

#1726734 26-Feb-2017 23:31

nzkiwiman:

Thanks everyone, added in the CNAME settings and was able to successfully get Outlook 2016 to autodiscover my custom domain, and is now connected via Exchange rather than ActiveSync

I've gone through this exercise also.

Have you noticed a dramatic slow down in your office 2016 performance since MS made this change - I sure have.