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Ok, so like a completely unprepared person, I let my hosting lapse. My hosting was with my registrar. I figured "OK, no big deal, I'll just keep it off until I get paid". Well, about a week later (as a matter of fact, on pay day), I went to renew and my stuff was gone. File content was no big deal; I always work locally and upload commits (DreamWeaver sites). I purchased hosting again.

However, one big issue was my DNS records. Specifically for my email.

You see, I had put my domains on the MS Live Domains, back in 2011, prior to them taking it down in 2014. I cannot administer, but I figured "Who needs to? Got everything I need set up the way I need it."

Well, once my DNS records were gone, and specifically the MX and TXT records that route my mail, I figured I was up the creek. My emails stopped receiving. I could still log in to https://outlook.com with my account and send emails, but not receive.

Tried to log in at https://domain.live.com and it just keeps taking me back to login. I thought surely I could retrieve the MX records, but apparently not. Also, they're unique, so you cannot use something general.

So how do you find out your MX records on a service that they no longer allow administration of and you really cannot justify the expense of moving to Office365?

jparnell8839
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  • I have no idea why this was flagged. While the administering of domains is no longer allowed by Microsoft, the service is still a supported software platform, as evidenced by my (and countless others') continued use. The restrictions placed were obviously to promote a paid platform (O365). Myself and countless others have no need for all the features, and the cost therein, of said platform. Additionally, this remains to be a well-searched topic to this day and this topic adds value to the Stack Exchange network, wherein information is gathered and shared. – jparnell8839 Jun 21 '16 at 01:10

1 Answers1

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This took many, many, many hours of Google-Fu (about 18 hours, give or take).

You have to first log in to your Outlook.com account that you're missing your records on. This must be done on a browser that has never logged into Office365 (so either download a new browser and DO NOT import anything, or clear everything out of your main browser). I used MS Edge because frankly I never use the Edge browser.

While you are logged in, open a new tab or window and navigate to https://portal.office.com/servicestatus . There will be a link that states "Office 365 admins click here to login", see below:

O365 Portal

Click that link, and it will take you to the Office 365 Portal admin page. Copy the contents of the address bar. It will show you something like:

https://login.microsoftonline.com/login.srf?wa=wsignin1.0&rpsnv=4&ct=1466402709&rver=6.7.6640.0&wp=MCMBI&wreply=https%3a%2f%2fportal.office.com%2flanding.aspx%3ftarget%3d%252fServiceStatus%252fServiceStatus.aspx&lc=1033&id=501392&msafed=0&client-request-id=4oo7f6503-9fb3-4z75-80e6-d43334c5f9e76d [my link is edited for privacy reasons]

The part we are looking for is everything after &client-request-id= , so copy the 4oo7f6503-9fb3-4z75-80e6-d43334c5f9e76d and delete the dashes, to get:

4oo7f65039fb34z7580e6d43334c5f9e76d

Now we need to add the records in the DNS. Go to your registrar and edit your DNS. Add the following records:

Type: MX
Host: @ [or your domain name, such as "awesome.com" ]
Points To:  your-copied-client-request-id.pamx1.hotmail.com (example 4oo7f65039fb34z7580e6d43334c5f9e76d.pamx1.hotmail.com
Priority: 1
TTL: 1 hour, or 3600

Type: TXT
Host: @
TXT Value: v=msv1 t=4oo7f65039fb34z7580e6d43334c5f9e76d
TTL: 1 hour

Type: TXT
Host: @
TXT Value: v=spf1 include:hotmail.com ~all
TTL: 1 hour

That's it. Just send yourself a test email to make sure it works. Mine was working within 15 minutes (once the DNS update took hold). Your results may vary. Just because it doesn't work immediately doesn't mean it won't work; best bet is to sleep on it, give it 24 hours.

jparnell8839
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