[HN Gopher] Microsoft is killing custom domain names in Outlook.com
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Microsoft is killing custom domain names in Outlook.com
Author : smileybarry
Score : 41 points
Date : 2022-11-03 22:11 UTC (49 minutes ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bigtechwire.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bigtechwire.com)
| systems wrote:
| currently (or before they remove it) custom domains for outlook
| are locked with godaddy, meaning you have to have the domain
| registered with godaddy, or transfer your domain to godaddy
|
| i hope they bring back this feature, but open it to any registrar
| lttlrck wrote:
| FYI my domain started on godaddy, but I migrated to cloudflare
| immediately and it has carried on working fine since then.
| bikezen wrote:
| Not entirely true, I got it working just fine using cloudflare.
| You just have to create the right DNS entries by hand.
| stingrae wrote:
| hmmm. I have had my personal domain on google domains. But have
| had a custom domain email with outlook from back when it was
| free. Though I guess I'll need to migrate to something else
| now.
| Neil44 wrote:
| He says in 4 weeks but it's actually 1 year and 4 weeks.
|
| It was a PITA feature anyway for the family plans, requiring the
| domain be hosted on GoDaddy. I can't imagine it was a super
| popular feature.
| smileybarry wrote:
| Oh really? I thought I just had to point DNS entries and that's
| it. Bah, I guess I don't mind then.
| boston_clone wrote:
| I've been using the custom email domain feature that comes with
| iCloud+ for some time now, and have had zero issues with it. I
| imagine many of us here already pay the measly 99C/ fee for
| additional storage, but I was unaware of that addition until
| recently.
|
| Awfully easy to do, even if you're wary of DNS.
|
| https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212514
| system2 wrote:
| Almost sounds like MS Exchange is being shut down. What is it
| exactly they are talking about?
| orev wrote:
| Outlook.com webmail.
|
| But separately, MS is definitely killing on-prem Exchange as
| well. Maybe not today, but they have been very clear that they
| want everyone in their cloud.
| annoyingnoob wrote:
| Spammers love this feature of Outlook.com. Services like
| Outlook.com and Gmail are good at ensuring that their servers are
| not blocked and that their email gets delivered, perfect for spam
| delivery.
|
| Here is a fun one... You get spam from that appears to be from
| outlook.com. You look at the email header and find the IP
| address. You lookup the IP Address registration info and find
| that it is registered to Microsoft, included in that registration
| is the email address abuse@microsoft.com. You email
| abuse@microsoft.com to tell them about the spammer, they respond
| telling you that you told the wrong people and refuse to send
| your message to the right people. Microsoft could care less about
| being a major spam provider.
| smileybarry wrote:
| This is about using a custom domain, and it's not a free
| feature. It's only if you pay for Microsoft 365
| Personal/Family, or any of the 365 business plans. (They're
| killing it for 365 Personal/Family plans)
|
| Spammers can still use a ...@outlook.com address as before, and
| if they made it to having a domain + paid Microsoft 365
| subscription, Microsoft have a credit card to blacklist.
| annoyingnoob wrote:
| I get plenty of custom domain name spam that comes through
| outlook.com (I'm not even talking about M365/O365). Free or
| not, Outlook.com is abused for spam constantly.
| _jal wrote:
| Yep, I block outlook.com for my me-only domain.
|
| I don't communicate with anyone there, and they're assholes
| about randomly blocking my mail with no way to contact
| anyone about it, so screw them, Balkanization it is.
| kosik wrote:
| Looks like they are giving 1 year before actually introducing
| that change. It's either the quote or the article wrong saying
| users will have only 4 weeks remaining.
| UberFly wrote:
| I wonder for how many it's more like 1 year to migrate to some
| other service.
| smileybarry wrote:
| Yeah, the article is wrong, you have 1 year to associate new
| custom domain addresses before the option to add is removed.
| smileybarry wrote:
| I just got the email mentioned in the article (and that's the
| only blog source I found for it, including Microsoft.com). After
| the whole G Suite Free cancellation I _thought_ about switching
| my domain email to Outlook for that benefit, but I decided
| against moving. Guess that was a good call.
| borissk wrote:
| This would've not impacted you, if you did move - they stop
| offering the feature to new customers, but will keep it working
| for existing users.
|
| I've had a couple of free emails with custom domains setup
| probably 15 years ago (Microsoft went through a few different
| names for this service since) and they work to this day. The
| only difference is I can't create new email accounts in the
| custom domains.
| anoojb wrote:
| I was in the same boat. Now feeling lucky I didn't make that
| mistake.
|
| Makes you wonder how much of this has to do with fraud and
| spam mitigation. It must be bad enough that they are throwing
| out the baby...
| smileybarry wrote:
| It would, because I make aliases and other mailboxes
| occasionally. (E.g.: Apple/Google developer program public-
| facing alias) I don't want to be locked into just the one
| name forever.
| bpye wrote:
| If you're looking for a new provider I'd vouch for Fastmail. I
| switched from Google's free plan back when they killed Inbox,
| and I've been pretty happy with it.
| smileybarry wrote:
| My problem is that I use my G Suite Free as a sort-of alias,
| it all still goes to my main Gmail (that I can't change due
| to _billions_ of accounts pointing to it) and I then send
| replies back with the @domain.name identity (and associated
| SMTP).
|
| I haven't been able to find a service to fill that niche that
| isn't a whole inbox, but also doesn't feel like some shaky
| registrar IMAP/SMTP setup. It's definitely a deliverability
| perk to have Google serve my domain.
|
| Cloudflare have a really nice incoming email redirection
| feature and I wanted to use it, but they don't support
| sending emails by design.
| bpye wrote:
| You can configure Fastmail to do that, but I guess it would
| be in reverse. I have some old Google accounts (old student
| email and pre-custom domain gmail) configured to forward
| mail to Fastmail, and then Fastmail configured to send
| email via Google for those email addresses too.
|
| https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-
| us/articles/1500000278022-Us...
| nicoburns wrote:
| I use Fastmail, and have it pull in my gmail account via
| IMAP. I actually don't have too much sent to my gmail these
| days, as I was already using the custom domain with gmail
| for many years before I switched providers, but what does
| get sent to it comes through just fine.
| cmeacham98 wrote:
| I'm not sure why this can't work with basically any email
| provider? Setup you domain like normal, and configure gmail
| to forward all incoming mail to your address on your
| domain.
|
| What is the feature you're missing here?
| nicce wrote:
| Tutanota is not bad either. Still a small provider but
| growing. They have also E2EE calendar.
| gigel82 wrote:
| I have a 365 family subscription thing (got it on discount from
| MS friends) and looked into the custom domain but it was missing
| important features like catch-all. Glad I didn't adopt it now.
| [deleted]
| dstaley wrote:
| I was really hoping Microsoft would expand this feature. I
| currently use a Microsoft 365 Business account for my personal
| email, and it feels like using a chainsaw to open a letter. One
| of the biggest gripes I have is the fact that a "Microsoft
| Account" and a Microsoft 365 account are two separate things, and
| you can't use a Microsoft 365 Account email for a Microsoft
| Account. Several Microsoft services only work with Microsoft
| Accounts _, so I keep a @outlook.com email around just for those
| rare instances.
|
| _ For example, I believe Xbox only allows Microsoft Accounts, so
| I wouldn 't be able to login to an Xbox using my primary email
| address.
| kornhole wrote:
| Services like ImprovMX will love this. They can make any domain
| you own and link it to your email account without setup on the
| mailbox. gandi.net gives you 2 free inboxes for every domain you
| own, but the free tier has limited services and size.
| blinkingled wrote:
| They should kill entirety of Outlook. It's been years and they
| can't get the spam under control. Nor the absolutely garbage UI.
| mixedmath wrote:
| If they got rid of outlook, then I'd have to find a new email
| address to give away to every signin place that wants my email
| and I suspect will email me promotional garbage (or sell my
| email).
|
| I guess this means that I'm reducing the signal they get for
| what "good" email is, as approximately 100 percent of the
| emails I get there are promotional or spam.
| sydney6 wrote:
| What do you mean by that? Are you having spam in your inbox or
| do mean deliverability issues to *.outlook.com?
| abswest wrote:
| I've been using Outlook email primarily for the last decade.
| Not that much spam, compared to other mailboxes I have.
| D13Fd wrote:
| You mean the e-mail client that the vast majority of U.S.
| companies use daily to send and receive millions if not
| billions of emails?
|
| Yeah, I'm sure they'll get right on that.
| barbazoo wrote:
| They all have problems with spam. Outlook, Google, Fastmail. I
| wouldn't say that's a reason to shut the service down.
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