I have M365 Family and a domain name not on GoDaddy

Hi David,

The URL is at the top of the browser window that pops up when you choose to use an existing domain (launching from Outlook personalized settings).

Derek

Hello @TestMicrosoft365,

Good question, I was stating a personal observation when following David's instruction.

As I have mentioned in a comment yesterday, I have successfully used the mxRecordValue taken from the URL and placed it into my MX and TXT records which resulted in Outlook (365 Family) detecting the domain. What this means is that you don't need to purchase a temporary domain name from GoDaddy as David indicated in his original instruction, you can save yourself a few bucks and bypass that redundant step.

I am currently using Google Workspace Domains (who in turn uses Domains By Proxy LLC) for my domain name. Using the DNS record settings provided in David's instruction, this works fine for Microsoft 365 Family's personalized (domain) email address setup. Propagation of DNS changes did not take long. Once I created my email alias with my domain name within Outlook, I did test emails to and from outlook and a personal Gmail address, and it worked fine.

Further observations that might be helpful with troubleshooting:

(step g.)

The "_domainconnect.gd.domaincontrol.com" CNAME entry enables Outlook to see your non-GoDaddy domain as one managed by GoDaddy. DomainConnect(.org) is an 'industry standard' for automating setup of email/web provider settings. It's not something that is used exclusively by Microsoft and GoDaddy. Obviously, in this instance the DomainConnect process is not going to utilized at all as you will be entering all of the required information manually into your domain provider's DNS record.

Notes:

• You will likely have an existing entry that you should modify rather than creating a competing entry.
• When you get prompted to Sign-in to GoDaddy just close that browser window, as you've already setup all necessary DNS record entries (as per David's instruction/table).

(step j.)

The "123456789.pamx1.hotmail.com" MX record enables Outlook to see that the domain as being validated and setup; Outlook then allows you to add your new personalized domain email alias.

Note:

• A completing MX entry from another email provider (in my case GoogleMail) with the same or greater priority setting will prevent Outlook from allowing you to the next step of setting up your email alias: you will see the message "Your domain [domain.name] is still being configured. This can take up to 24hrs". Setting the priority to "0" should place this MX record at the top of list for resolution, then Outlook should see the domain as being setup. If this is your permanent setup, MX entries for the old email provider should be removed at some point (always a good idea to make backup copies of these DNS records before making any changes).

The other TXT and CNAME entries David mentioned in his instruction are required too but the above two are likely the ones that might cause issue in setup failure.

--Derek

Check the priority of your pamx1.hotmail.com MX record entry, it should be set to a number lower (eg. 0) than the existing MX records (which you can remove after completing full migration). Also, ensure the prefix number to pamx address is the mxRecordValue taken from the GoDaddy "Domain Connect" page's URL.

The 'from' address is the domain name, not outlook.com. You can set what the primary alias is within Outlook so you don't forget to change it before sending an email each time.

With regard to transmission of emails, here's what I see from my receiving email's source, I have zeroed out sender ip and removed my domain name, replacing it with "[domain.name]". I have bolded some points of interest.

Sent from my domain to my domain (in Outlook):

ARC-Authentication-Results: i=2; mx.microsoft.com 1; spf=none (sender ip is

000.000.000.000) smtp.rcpttodomain=[domain.name] smtp.mailfrom=[domain.name];

dmarc=none action=none header.from=[domain.name]; dkim=none (message not

signed); arc=pass (0 oda=0 ltdi=1)

Sent from my domain to Gmail:

ARC-Authentication-Results: i=2; mx.google.com;

   arc=pass (i=1); 

   **spf=neutral** (google.com: 0000:0000:0000:0000::000 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of [user]@[domain.name]) smtp.mailfrom=[user]@[domain.name]

If I change the MX record and promote my GoogleMail MX entries and resend from outlook to a personal Gmail account, then Gmail treats it as spam (received into spam folder, but with the hotmail MX record promoted to top of the MX priority that doesn't seem to happen when sending, it seems to be valid, albeit spf is "neutral" --I guess that's much better than "fail".

This thread has been immensely helpful, thankyou everybody.

My observation is that the MX priority must be 0 (zero) for 365 to pick it up (which will be almost immediate). No other value worked for me (get the Your domain yourdomain.com is still being configured. This can take up to 24 hours message).

I'm wondering whether it's possible to set up more than one such personal domainname for a 365 Family account.

Clearly there's no restrictions on configuring the DNS records, the MXRecordValue is a constant for the account. It would just be dependent on the Microsoft side allowing it.

It seems that if one only needs to send using an additional domain, it is much more straightforward to set up aliases on the Microsoft account under "Your Info". This would require some other arrangement for receiving any replies eg. forwarding from one's own ISP for example. I'm not sure what the SPF / DMARC situation would be, though.