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The Outlook.com UI is great, but last time I checked, the signup and management interface for free custom domains was as clunky and unnavigable as it could poss

by kijin 13y ago

The Outlook.com UI is great, but last time I checked, the signup and management interface for free custom domains was as clunky and unnavigable as it could possibly be. It was still on the old Live.com UI, with no links to/from any other part of Outlook.com. The features were poorly documented, it was too easy to mess up something and lose data, and worst of all, Microsoft refused to activate my domain unless its randomly generated MX record was added to the DNS with the lowest priority. That left no room for a period of testing and graceful migration from the previous email host. Moreover, it would deactivate the domain as soon as it detected another MX record with a lower priority, so it was impossible to gracefully migrate away from Microsoft, either. I hope the paid option (Office 365) has a better management interface.

edandersen 13y ago
For Office 365 you actually have to change your nameservers over to Microsoft and they handle your DNS. The plus side of this is that Exchange Autoconfigure works, but the downside is that you have to use their UI for custom DNS records.
- thwarted 13y ago
  That's terrible. Email Service Provider and DNS Service Provider should remain separate, not be required to be the same entity in order for the services to work. They'll get a lot of small businesses and home users, I bet, but I bet it'll be an uphill battle to get larger businesses and enterprises on this, especially if the domain is used for something other than just email.
  - kijin 13y ago
    If you're a large business or "enterprise", Microsoft will be happy to let you customize the system to your heart's content.
- tanzam75 13y ago
  > For Office 365 you actually have to change your nameservers over to Microsoft and they handle your DNS. No, you don't. That is just an option. The other option is to use a third-party nameserver. See: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office-365-domains.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office-365-domain...
  - edandersen 13y ago
    Thanks for the correction! Unfortunately I cannot edit my incorrect statement now. Upvoting so people can see the correction.
tanzam75 13y ago
It's a real shame that Microsoft dropped it on the floor, because Outlook.com itself is very nice. I even prefer it to Exchange, because it syncs better with Outlook. Outlook connects to Outlook.com using Exchange ActiveSync, a push protocol that sends changes out instantaneously. Outlook connects to Exchange using RPC-over-HTTP, using a cached model that delays the sync. Many an Outlook user has triaged a bunch of messages in Outlook, closed Outlook a bit too quickly, gone home for the day, and then discovered that none of the changes had made it to Exchange. This scenario simply doesn't happen with Outlook.com because Exchange ActiveSync is instant.

by kijin 13y ago

edandersen 13y ago

For Office 365 you actually have to change your nameservers over to Microsoft and they handle your DNS. The plus side of this is that Exchange Autoconfigure works, but the downside is that you have to use their UI for custom DNS records.

thwarted 13y ago
That's terrible. Email Service Provider and DNS Service Provider should remain separate, not be required to be the same entity in order for the services to work. They'll get a lot of small businesses and home users, I bet, but I bet it'll be an uphill battle to get larger businesses and enterprises on this, especially if the domain is used for something other than just email.
- kijin 13y ago
  If you're a large business or "enterprise", Microsoft will be happy to let you customize the system to your heart's content.
tanzam75 13y ago
> For Office 365 you actually have to change your nameservers over to Microsoft and they handle your DNS. No, you don't. That is just an option. The other option is to use a third-party nameserver. See: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office-365-domains.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office-365-domain...
- edandersen 13y ago
  Thanks for the correction! Unfortunately I cannot edit my incorrect statement now. Upvoting so people can see the correction.

tanzam75 13y ago

It's a real shame that Microsoft dropped it on the floor, because Outlook.com itself is very nice. I even prefer it to Exchange, because it syncs better with Outlook. Outlook connects to Outlook.com using Exchange ActiveSync, a push protocol that sends changes out instantaneously. Outlook connects to Exchange using RPC-over-HTTP, using a cached model that delays the sync. Many an Outlook user has triaged a bunch of messages in Outlook, closed Outlook a bit too quickly, gone home for the day, and then discovered that none of the changes had made it to Exchange. This scenario simply doesn't happen with Outlook.com because Exchange ActiveSync is instant.