Outlook.com, custom domains, and ActiveSync

Microsoft's widely used e-mail service Hotmail was recently overhauled and rebranded Outlook.com. One of the less known services they provide is the support for custom domains. A couple of months ago, I was looking for a new (preferably free) e-mail service for my personal domain. It turned out Outlook.com had everything I needed!

To set up a custom domain, you'll first have to log in to the Windows Live Admin Center with your Microsoft account (I used my good ol' Hotmail account). There you'll add your custom domain, and you'll get instructions on how to set up DNS etc. You can choose between closed membership, i.e. you'll register the e-mail accounts yourself, or open membership which lets users register e-mail accounts under your domain themselves. The setup was straightforward, so I won't repeat the steps here. You initially get a limit of 50 e-mail accounts for your custom domain.

Once you've created an account under your domain, you can go straight to https://mail.live.com and log in.

Though happy with having my e-mail accounts available online, I also wanted to read my mail on my phone. It's a somewhat well hidden secret that you can use ActiveSync to connect to your custom e-mail accounts, but I stumbled upon the settings here. Here's how I set up the e-mail accounts for my custom domain on my iPhone.

Go to "Settings" -> "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" -> "Add Account..." and choose "Microsoft Exchange" as the account type.

 Enter the e-mail address, password, and give the new account a reasonable description.

When pressing "Next" the setup will fail and you'll be asked for a few more details. Enter "m.hotmail.com" for the "Server", and leave the "Domain" empty.

 Enter the e-mail address in the "Username" field.

And that's it! Press "Next" and the next screen lets you choose whether you want to synchronize mail, contacts, etc. Your custom e-mail account is now set up on your phone.