If you own a domain, you can have Microsoft manage e-mail and instant messaging for your web address. Microsoft’s Windows Live Custom Domains allows you to set up for free up to 20 e-mail accounts using your domain name. I just set up mine a few minutes ago.
Each mail account gets the standard Hotmail inbox size of 25MB. After signing up, though, you only get 2MB of storage space, Hotmail says you’ll get the full storage size after verification, usually after a few weeks of usage. But if you’re from the United States, the free e-mail accounts come with 250MB storage space. You can then check your username@yourdomain.com e-mail address in Hotmail.
This is an excellent free service from Microsoft. I never used my domain for e-mails because the mails would eat up space from my hosting account. By letting Microsoft handle my mail, I can use my domain as e-mail address and yet not worry about e-mail maintenance or disk space.
I bought my domain from Ploghost, the company hosting this blog. Transferring my e-mail management to Windows Live Custom Domains took less than five minutes. At first, I got stuck in the process when I used Firefox. It was only when I used Internet Explorer that I was able to complete signing up for the service. I first logged into http://domains.live.com using my Hotmail e-mail account and I was given the MX details to enter into my name server.
I then logged into my Ploghost CPanel and clicked on Modify MX Entry under the E-Mail category. I then entered the address provided by Customs Domains and saved the setting. I went back to Custom Domains and clicked on Validate button and the MX Entry was confirmed to be correct. After that, e-mail service was immediately activated and I started adding accounts.
I went to the Hotmail site and signed in using the new e-mail address I created and I was prompted to change the password, enter a few profile details and choose from possible e-mail newsletter subscriptions. After that, I was redirected to the familiar Hotmail inbox, where I started sending messages announcing my new custom e-mail address.
10 responses so far ↓
Vik // Nov 27, 2005 at 5:23 am
sounds really great.. but I am unable to signin
Max // Nov 27, 2005 at 2:23 pm
Vik,
Did you use Firefox? Try using Microsoft Explorer. I wasn’t able to sign in using Firefox. I was only able to complete the process when I used Microsoft Explorer. I’ve edited the post to add that you need to use Explorer to complete the signing up process.
Fleeb // Nov 27, 2005 at 8:09 pm
You can do that in Gmail. Go to the settings and check out the accounts tab
Max // Nov 28, 2005 at 2:06 am
Fleeb,
Microsoft’s Custom Domains is different. In GMail, what you specify in the Accounts tab is a custom from address and Google warns that: “each time someone replies to a message you send using a custom ‘From:’ address, the reply will be delivered to the ‘From:’ address rather than your Gmail address.”
In Customs Domains, you manage your mail settings in the domains.live.com page. It’s like having your mail server hosted by Microsoft. Each account is a full-fledge e-mail account and not just a custom address.
In my case, for example, I own the http://www.limpag.com domain. I can create @limpag.com email accounts using my Ploghost CPanel but doing this will eat up part of my disk space because CPanel locks up the allocated e-mail space for the accounts. If I specify, let’s say admin(at)limpag(dot)com to have a 5MB inbox space, this space is subtracted from my plan’s limit.
By having Custom Domains manage my e-mails, I no longer worry about the disk space and even e-mail management. The e-mail accounts with (at)limpag.com now enjoy spam filters Hotmail users are enjoying. My family members using (at)limpag.com email addresses just access their e-mail through http://www.hotmail.com.
» Microsoft launches Windows Live Custom Domains - Ambot ah! [ technology news and reviews ] // Nov 28, 2005 at 3:16 am
[...] Max has a short guide posted here on how to set it up with your hosting account. A great alternative to freeing up space from your blog hosting accounts. [...]
Sassy // Dec 3, 2005 at 4:15 pm
Works with the latest version of Opera.
Sam // Jun 25, 2006 at 8:46 am
Ah, I would like to inform you that google does have a service like this! Check out google.com/hosted and you will find it is the same service..except with gmail. It is excellent and I have it for all 5 of my domains. The catch is that you apply and they have to approve you. They approved me on all accounts though, so as long as you as for a reasonable number of email accounts you should get in.
Max Limpag // Jun 29, 2006 at 2:43 am
Sam,
Yes, but it just launched recently. It wasn’t available yet when I made the comment above. I’m thinking of leaving Windows Live Custom Domains for Google. I really love how GMail manages e-mails.
Wilson Chua // Jul 4, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Hi Max,
can you email me your email address? I have an idea id like to explore with you.
wilson
Spamming Charles Krauthammer | Leon Kilat ::: The Cybercafe Experiments // Apr 23, 2007 at 1:46 am
[...] initially used Windows Live Custom Domains to manage my limpag.com e-mails. But I, as well as other Limpags, didn’t use it much. For one, it came with the old Hotmail [...]
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