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November 11 Custom Domains renamed to Admin Center in V3.0We've just released Version 3.0 of Custom Domains. We have decided to change the service name to Windows Live Admin Center. We're changing the name to better reflect our features and capabilities, but don't worry, Admin Center is still where you access the same great features you did with Custom Domains. August 27 Custom Domains Version 2.0 is live!Last week we released Version 2.0 of Custom Domains. Test drive the new features at https://domains.live.com. Here are the major highlights of this release:
We hope you enjoy the improved service. We still value your feedback and encourage you to visit our feedback site and our developer site. May 31 New SDK V2.0 Beta is liveThe team has been busy working on the Custom Domains service, getting ready for a big release later this summer. We've just released a new version of the SDK V2.0 Beta that adds 12 new methods to help you manage your domains programatically. You can download the SDK here.
The SDK is in English only.
We would appreciate any comments or suggestions on the SDK, and would love to engage with a limited set of cusotmers to test this version of the SDK. Please email us at dsupport@microsoft.com if you have feedback or want to be in our limited Beta SDK program.
Thanks,
Custom Domains Team December 07 Custom Domains latest version is live!Today we released the newest version of Custom Domains for you to try out. Visit the site at https://domains.live.com. We have added some new features and incorporated comments from you in this release. We hope you'll agree that this is the best release to date. Here are the major highlights of this release:
We hope you enjoy the improved service. We still value your feedback and encourage you to visit our feedback site and our developer site. August 28 Service Update on Windows Live Mail Beta InvitationsWe are currently experiencing trouble with the engine we use to send out Windows Live Mail beta invitations to your Custom Domains’ user accounts. This is resulting in users receiving “blank” invitation mails with no information on how to upgrade to the new service. We are working on this and we expect to resolve the issue shortly. There is no workaround at this time. Please accept our regrets for any inconvenience. We will update this site when the issue is resolved. Thanks for your patience. August 04 Windows Live Custom Domains is now available in international markets!We just released international versions of the Custom Domains service. The Custom Domains website is now available in the following 15 languages across 21 countries. You can get to the international version of the website by clicking on the corresponding link below. Alternatively, it may also be viewed if the browser language is set to one of the supported markets.
Australia (English)
Belgium (French and Dutch) Brazil (Portuguese) Canada (English and French) China (Simplified Chinese) Denmark (Danish) France (French) Germany (German) India (English) Italy (Italian) Japan (Japanese) Korea (Korean) Mexico (Spanish) Netherlands (Dutch) Norway (Norwegian) Russia (Russian) Spain (Spanish) Sweden (Swedish) Taiwan (Traditional Chinese) United Kingdom (English) United States (English and Spanish) We’d love to hear your feedback, especially from our international users on our latest improvements. Please use the “Feedback” link at the bottom of the site to send it to us.
Many of our customers have enabled the Open Membership feature for their domains. We'd love to know how you are using Open Memberships to promote your business or web community. Please use the “Feedback” link in the footer of the site to send us your story, and we’ll consider sharing this on our community site (http://dev.live.com/customdomains/default.aspx?app=customdomains).
Thank you for using Custom Domains!
Windows Live Custom Domains Team
June 27 Bye bye beta….Custom Domains v1 has launchedWe’re leaving the “Beta tag” blanket at home. That’s right…thanks to your beta testing and feedback; we’ve now officially launched Windows Live Custom Domains. Our colleagues over in Messenger kicked off the Windows Live launch season last week. Along with the launch of OneCare and Live Favorites, we're excited to continue the momentum. Windows Live is about the Web, the way you want it. Personalization is a key piece here, and let's face it...your identity online is central to that. Custom Domains enables people to use all of the Windows Live and MSN services they want with an ID that's as unique to them as they want it to be. For those who aren’t familiar with Custom Domains, we provide free hosted e-mail for your domain. Let’s say you own the domain name, “wingtiptoys.com.” With Custom Domains, you get unlimited, free e-mail accounts at that domain. You can open accounts for sales@wingtiptoys.com, owner@wingtiptoys.com, etc. Oh wait, did we mention that it’s free? This isn’t one of those “free during beta” trial offers. This is free for life. New Feature: Open MembershipWe’re jazzed about a new feature we’ve added called Open Membership. How does this work? Let’s say you run a website called “soccerfan.com.” Your users love your site and want an e-mail address @soccerfan.com. Prior to this launch, each user would have to request an e-mail account from the administrator. Then, the admin would manually approve and create each account. We’ve made things much easier all around with this launch.
With the Open Membership featured enabled, we provide URL links so users can automatically sign-up for an e-mail account @soccerfan.com. Admins no longer have to burden with the manual creation of email accounts, and users get accounts immediately. Users will love their new email because it’s a brand new MSN Hotmail or Windows Live Mail beta account with a highly personalized @soccerfan.com domain name. Web site owners will love it because their users help promote the site. Also, users will re-visit the host site often to check their e-mail. Featured Customer: Waterloo, BelgiumOur newest customer is the Belgian city of Waterloo. They’re offering free @waterloo.eu MSN Hotmail accounts to 30,000 Waterloo citizens. We’re honored to partner with Waterloo to offer this new technology to their citizens. If you’re an organization or business looking to provide e-mail to your users, come check us out!
Thanks again to our beta testers who have helped develop the service – we’ve learned a lot. We will have more features to come, so come back and visit often! June 21 New release is Live!The team is proud to introduce the latest release of Windows Live Custom Domains for you to try out. Visit the new site at http://domains.live.com. We have worked hard to incorporate your feedback into this release, and want to thank all of you for trying our service during the Beta period. Here are the major highlights of this release:
Open Membership will allow you to create e-mail accounts in your domain directly from your website. This is a great way for clubs and affinity groups to reach out to a broad audience and create communities of users with your domain name included in their Windows Live ID. And all you have to do is register your domain with the service, select Open Membership, and add webpage code that we provide to allow users to sign up. Let us know what you think about this new feature. We hope you enjoy the improved service. Note that we have closed down comments on this blog site since we want to devote the site to announcing updates. We still value your feedback and encourage you to visit our feedback site and our new developer site. May 16 Tell us about your Custom Domains SDK app and win!Last month, we launched the Windows Live Custom Domains SDK. With the SDK, developers can now create client and web applications using Custom Domains through our web services calls. We want to hear more about the applications you’ve developed using our SDK, so we’ve got a nice, little incentive.
E-mail your SDK story to dsupport@microsoft.com with “SDK Story” in the subject line. Tell us the:
If we like your story, we’ll publicize it on our blog. We’ll also throw in a limited edition, Custom Domains fleece from Columbia Sportswear, while supplies last. This contest will end on June 15, 2006. ** CLARIFICATION ** We intended the SDK to be used by individuals to manage their own domains, but we are seeing clever individuals create applications that can be downloaded to help others manage their domain users. We are impressed with the ingenuity of these applications, however we realize that we haven't given proper guidance around: 1. use of our trademark and logos 2. providing a clear warning to the end user that they are entering their Windows Live/Passport credentials into a client application, which presents a security risk We're working to come up with guidelines that will make it clear how to develop applications with the entire suite of Windows Live Developer products. We expect to have those published in the next few months. In the meantime, feel free to develop your own productivity tools with the WLCD SDK. May 13 WLCD UpdateHello again.
We wanted to give an update on where the WLCD product is heading.
We are working hard on our next release. You can expect to see:
- A whole new user interface - Improved online Help - Better integration with other WL services - A killer new feature (surprise) Last week we hosted a nice group of MSN Butterflys (MVPs) and got some good feedback on our service and future direction.
As most of you know, there has been a change in our support model recently. As we move closer to removing the Beta tag, it is necessary to expand our support organisation to scale our support coverage. As you can imagine, there is a ramp up time to bring new support personel up to speed with the product. WE ARE SERIOUS ABOUT SUPPORT and are committed to giving you timely and accurate assistance.
Custom Domain accounts are now working with PocketMSN! I know this will be good news to some of you.
Thanks for using WLCD.
WL Custom Domains Team April 08 WLCD Support has changedWe've changed our support model to align with the rest of Windows Live. Please submit any questions/comments to the following eform:
A number of you have asked about our M5 release; it is now live. This release was more about bug fixes and infrastructure changes so the impact on the feature set was limited. We hear your comments about new feature requests and are working hard on making WLCD better for our big live release in the next few months.
Thanks for using WLCD! March 23 Update on our serviceI'm glad that many of you are now seeing the full benefits of the Windows Live Mail interface. We apologize for those of you that waited longer than 2 weeks for the migration.
Another reminder to post individual questions to our dsupport@microsoft.com email address so we can better address your concerns in email.
There were a few questions that I'd like to respond to here:
1. Do we support more than 60 user accounts?
Yes, but only for qualified customers. Please email us at dsupport@microsoft.com if you are interested.
2. Do Custom Domains accounts work with Pocket MSN?
They do. There was a bug that has been fixed and the update will be released soon.
3. How long does it take to get on the Windows Live Mail Beta?
Approximately 2 weeks after you accept the invite.
Thanks for using our service!
Custom Domains Team
March 07 Windows Live Mail Beta UpdateThank you for the interest you have expressed in upgrading your email accounts to the Windows Live Mail Beta. We’re processing your applications on an ongoing basis. We’re currently experiencing a short delay in moving the initial applicants onto the beta. These initial accounts will not be moved in the two week window promised when you accepted the invite. We expect this to be resolved within the next week and a half. I am happy to tell you that all applications made within the past few days and all applications moving forward should be completed within the two week timeframe promised in the sign up flow. We’re sorry for this additional inconvenience and appreciate your patience while we work to bring all of you this exiciting feature as quickly as possible. February 22 Windows Live Mail Beta invites are ready for you!This morning we added the ability for all domain owners to invite up to 40 users to join in the WL Mail Beta. Log into your domain administrator page at http://domains.live.com and you'll see the link on the left pane. Enjoy! February 11 M4 is Live!M4 was released on February 9th.
Main highlights for this release:
60 users - We now allow you to add up to 60 users in your domain.
User management - We've added a few things here, including improved UI and allowing you to specify if the user's password should be changed on first login. Better error messages - We have heard your feedback and improved the error messages in the admin console. We have also updated our Help file.
Bug fixes - Based on customer feedback, we have fixed a number of bugs. We are moving forward with still more features, including an SDK that should make administration of a domain easier. Contact dsupport@microsoft.com if you are interested in early access to the SDK.
Keep the feedback coming!
Custom Domains Team
January 11 Top questions from our usersI'm going to try to answer the Top questions from all of you in this latest blog update.
What is Windows Live Custom Domains anyway?
We are not offering free domains or to host Hotmail addresses with our service. We require you to purchase the domain first from another registrar (for example, eNom or godaddy) and then register that domain with our service. What we then offer is free email services with all of the Hotmail advantages along with your custom domain name. Our Help file at http://domains.live.com explains the personal domain concept and buying/managing your own domain in more detail.
What is an MX record and why do I have to modify it?
The MX record redirects email sent to your domain to our Custom Domain email servers (Hotmail system). Since you own the domain you have to change the MX record through your DNS provider (usually the registrar that sold you the domain). Once you change the MX record to the valid address you get from our service, you can enter new users. Each user will receive a Hotmail mail box that they need to log in and activate in order to receive and send email.
I created a new user. The mailbox is only 2MB in size. How do I get a 25MB or 250MB mailbox?
We have a bug today that leaves your Country/Region blank for all new user accounts. As such, new mailboxes only get 2MB.
To expand the mailbox to 25MB, do the following:
1. Log in to Hotmail and add the country code for each account as "United States"
2. Close each Hotmail account (this will *NOT* delete any email) by going to Help and searching for "Close account" 3. Log in again to each Hotmail account and re-activate. The mailbox size should now be 25mb. After 30 days, you will be eligible for an even larger mailbox (250MB).
I deleted a user account and waited for 30 days. The account is still not available. Why? We have a bug in our Hotmail cleanup scripts that impacts the recycling of Custom Domain accounts. We are working on a resolution to this problem. Sorry for the inconvenience. My subdomain is not supported by your service. Why?
At this time we don't support subdomains, only "root" domains. It is nearly impossible to validate subdomain ownership. We are considering working with third parties (such as alltel) to offer subdomains from their root domain, but currently this is not available.
I am trying to sign-in to the Custom Domains Beta, but the link seems to just reload the page.
This is a known bug in our code, and we are working to fix it.
The workaround is to:
1. close ALL of your browser windows
2. open a single browser window and delete your browser cookies
I am really excited about trying out Windows Live Mail (Kahuna). How do I do that?
We will extend a certain number of invitations to all BYOD domain owners in our next M4 release. Kahuna will support BYOD mailboxes.
Can I use Outlook as a mail client for BYOD accounts?
Not unless you have a paid MSN subscription. See http://join.msn.com/ for more details.
Do you support a "catch all"account?
Not at this time. We are considering for a future release.
I have an existing EASI (Email As Sign In) Passport account that belongs to my domain and want to maintain my old settings when I register this domain with BYOD.
Let me answer this with an example. Problem: I am the owner of domain batcave.com. I have two EASI accounts (batman and robin) that are used for IM and music purchases. I want to bring batcave.com to BYOD in order to get free email. But I don't want to mess up all of my current MSN information associated with batman@batcave.com and robin@batcave.com (music purchases, buddy lists, etc.). Solution: I decide to use batman@batcave.com to administer the domain. I log in to BYOD with this account and register batcave.com. I'm asked to change the MX record, so I go to my registrar (goriddler.com) and change the MX record. I log back into BYOD and I see that my account (batman) is already a user in the domain [Note: we add the admin account, assuming it is in your domain, for you automatically]. I want to add robin to the domain. Should I use the Add User or the Import User feature?? The Import User feature! This will maintain all of Robin's old settings,including his password. If I add robin as a "New User", this will create a new Passport account with a new (temporary) password and mark the old robin account for rename. The next time he logs in he'll be surprised to find a rename request! And his new account will not be recognized by IM and MSN music. He'll have to use his old EASI account with a new name. Not ideal. For a brand new user with no EASI account, say batgirl, you must use the "Add User" feature. You can only import existing EASI accounts. I hope this helps demystify this issue.
For other questions, look at earlier blog entries. If you still have questions, email us at dsupport@microsoft.com
December 15 Rejected Domains, SPF records and MSN Premium integrationRejected Domains
Many of you have asked us why your domain name has been rejected. There are several reasons:
1. Domain has too many EASI passports registered with Passport
2. Blocked word in string (like "bank" or "free") 3. Domain is "externally managed" - there is a passport account already associated with this domain name 4. Domain or subdomain not supported by Passport (based on regional standards)
We are working on better messages to help you understand the exact reason for our next milestone release. In the meantime, please send email to us if you believe your domain should be supported.
Adding an SPF record to your DNS
The Sender ID Framework is a protocol created to counter e-mail domain spoofing and to provide greater protection against phishing schemes by verifying an e-mail message's sender. For more information, see http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/technologies/senderid/technology.mspx You can help us reduce email spoofing by adding a TXT record to your DNS settings (many domain providers allow the addition of TXT records). The record would contain the following: v=spf1 include:hotmail.com ~all Note that this is *not* required for your domain to use our service.
MSN Premium support
If you want to include Custom Domain accounts under your existing MSN Premium subscription, we support this. However, you must first enter a Country Name and Birthdate for each Custom Domain account before adding it to your MSN Premium subscription. You do this by logging into each Hotmail account, selecting Options, then Profile. If the Country is blank, you will receive an Error Code:2 when you attempt to add this account under your MSN Premium account.
December 09 M3 ReleasedWe’ve shipped a new version of our Beta. We’ve tried to address the main concerns and bugs that have been reported with our previous version, M2.
We fixed the sign-in problem many people were having. Some people would click sign-in and be taken back to a page telling them they needed to sign-in.
We’ve increased the number of users allowed in a domain from 20 to 40. We’ve also added UI to our user management page that deals with larger numbers of users in a domain.
We’ve added an ability to “import” existing Passports in the domain. This means if you used an existing E-Mail as Sign-In (EASI) Passport in a domain and later configured the domain for use with domains.live.com, you are now given the option of “importing” this user into the domain and giving the Passport an inbox or alternatively “evicting” the user so they are forced to pick a new name next time they sign-in.
We’ve worked on improving Firefox support.
We’ve fixed a number of minor bugs and problems.
Keep the feedback coming.
Thanks,
Windows Live Custom Domains Team December 03 Thanks for your Feedback!We've heard back from many of you with good suggestions and questions. Thank you!!!
First of all, let me clarify a few common issues:
1. You have to delete all other MX records for our service to work with your domain. We do this to ensure proper email delivery.
2. Yes, you can use Outlook or Outlook Express to manage these mailboxes. You have to purchase a premium MSN service to enable this - see below for more information.
3. There is a 30 day waiting period to reclaim an email address if you delete it. This is driven by security and privacy reasons across all hotmail boxes.
4. Mailbox size is 2mb by default. You can increase the size to 250mb/2gb by following the instructions later in the blog.
I also wanted to add directions for three of the more popular registrars our customers are using to host their domains and change their MX records. Here you go:
Godaddy.com instructions for changing MX record
1. Log in to godaddy.com
2. Click on Domains -> My Domain Names in pulldown menu 3. Click on the domain name you want to manage (domain details appear on right) 4. Expand "Total DNS Control" option in detail section 5. Click on "Total DNS Control And MX Records" 6. Click on "Launch Total DNS Control Manager" - new window appears 7. Scroll down to "MX (Mail Exchangers)" and delete all records displayed 8. Click on "Add new MX Record" 9. Enter 10 for the Priority under Step 1. 10. Enter the MX record that you received on the Windows Live Custom Domains site under Step 3. 11. Click on Continue 12. Click on Add 13. Click "Verify DNS" on the live.com site (it can take some time for the MX record to be propogated) Yahoo Domains instructions for changing MX record
1. Log onto Yahoo Domains
2. Click on "Domain Control Panel"
3. Click on "Manage Advanced DNS Records"
4. Click on "Change MX Records"
5. Clear (delete) all old MX addresses
6. Enter the MX record that you received on the Windows Live Custom Domains site on the first blank line, under "Mailserver Hostname"
7. Click "Submit"
8. Click "Verify DNS" on the live.com site (it can take some time for the MX record to be propogated)
1und1.de instructions for changing MX record 1. Go to http://login.1und1.de 9. Click "Verify DNS" on the live.com site (it can take some time for the MX record to be propogated)
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