DNS Server Support for Office 365 Exchange email is entirely automated if your DNS and Office 365 is hosted by GoDaddy. The same goes for automated DNS setup if you host Office 365 through Microsoft; and the DNS is hosted there too. For Alternate DNS Location setup For Microsoft Hosted Office 365, scroll further down the page.
Alternate DNS Location Setup For GoDaddy Hosted Office 365
You must follow the steps below if your DNS is hosted somewhere else and you want your GoDaddy Office 365 Exchange email functional.
GoDaddy needs to verify ownership with DNS provider
A simple verification process of you having true ownership of the DNS server hosting say like acme.com is to add text file record.
In this scenario, we are using BIND DNS web interface to accomplish our validation process that GoDaddy requested once you point to the DNS IP address.
Login into the DNS Server and edit the text record.
Fill in the fields with the GoDaddy information.
Manually look up records:
ProTip! Check your domain spelling. Looking up TXT and MX files are critical for resolving issues. Alternative, GUI friendly site is https://www.whatsmydns.net
C:\Users\mfig>nslookup
Default Server: x.local
Address: 10.70.1.201
> set query=TXT
> acme.com
Server: x.local
Address: 10.70.1.201
Non-authoritative answer:
acme.com text =
“MS=ms82793785”
acme.com text =
“v=spf1 a mx a:acme.com ip4:x.x.241.90 ?all”
>exit
Manually lookup Records -MX record
There are plenty of commands for DNS server support. Here’s the one specifically looking up the MX record…
set query=mx
> acme.com
Server: UnKnown
Address: 10.10.10.1
Non-authoritative answer:
acme.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail13.safesecureweb.com
> set query=mx
> acme.com
Server: UnKnown
Address: 10.10.10.1
Non-authoritative answer:
acme.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail13.safesecureweb.com
Bad MX Records for GoDaddy O365 Example:
acme.com MX preference = 0, mail exchanger = smtp.secureserver.net (needs to be removed)
acme.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mx1-us1.ppe-hosted.com (these have higher priority and are fouling things up – remove)
acme.com MX preference = 20, mail exchanger = mx2-us1.ppe-hosted.com (these have higher priority and are fouling things up – remove)
acme.com MX preference = 0, mail exchanger = acme-com.mail.protection.outlook.com (keep this one)
acme.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mailstore1.secureserver.net (needs to be removed)
I got a Successful Validation of Records
Perfect add all the remaining records GoDaddy provides below for Office 365 Exchange email setup.
Sender Permitted From or SPF
The most difficult one to add on certain DNS servers is SPF. Edit Sender Permitted From entry in acme.com zone file.
Copy and paste into a notepad the SPF txt record… “ v=spf1 a:dispatch-us.ppe-hosted.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all “ so you can correctly add the fields by doing a side by side comparison as displayed below. Once the entry is saved, the SPF record should look exactly like the notepad.
MX Record or Mail Server Record
The mail server record should be copied and pasted next like below.
SRV Record or Service Address Records
The SRV records should be copied and pasted next like below.
ProTip! Make sure the service record has the _ removed from the beginning because Bind automatically adds it. And the domain acme.com or whatever your domain name has a period at the end like acme.com.
Cname Records or Name Alias Records
Run nslookup command again and verify the SPF record is in place.
Alternate DNS Location Setup For Microsoft Hosted Office 365
These records can be found on Microsoft’s site under Home > Domains. I believe the only value that changes from our illustration is the one marked out in blue. Add the records below to the alternate hosted DNS location:
DNS Server Support for Office 365 Summary
Baring you have some typos here and there, you should now have a functional mail server system hosted through GoDaddy or Microsoft and the DNS hosted somewhere else. Congrats, you did it!
