DNS

Many domain registrars (or at least the ones I’m using) don’t provide domain hosting. So you’re unable to create any records for your domain, you can just change name servers for it. In most cases it’s fine as most of hosting providers gives ability to manage DNS records, so you just need to update name servers in your registrar control panel.

Sometimes however it’s not enough. For instance if you want to use your domain in Office 365 you need first verify that it’s yours. In order to do so you need to create TXT or MX record with value provided by O365 setup process. Of course if your registrar doesn’t offer domain hosting you’re unable to do so.

Since yesterday I’m a happy subscriber of Office 365 P1 plan. I now have 25 GB Exchange mailbox (using only 0,5 GB), Lync IM (awesome), Sharepoint site (quite useless), and access to Office web apps (which are free anyway). As I’m “half American” I was able to buy it for only 6,38 USD, which is a little less than what I was paying Apps4Rent (6,95). I’m pretty happy with the service, setup went smooth. I was even able to trick O365 a little, so my domain is still managed by my main hosting service, but I have all records as they should be. If you have your domain elsewhere and want to keep it there, but you want to use it for O365 services do as follows: