Outlook.com

Outlook.com & Custom Domains

I just posted about Google Apps Standard Edition and how it is still available.  But what about those of you who might need more users?  Perhaps you are running a small neighborhood organization and would like to setup email service for a custom domain & allow more than 10 users to use the service.  Perhaps you would even like those people to be able to sign themselves up instead of administratively adding them all.  Outlook.com may be the better option for you.

Until tonight, I didn’t even realize that Outlook.com offered a free custom domain option.  The setup is pretty much exactly like that of Google Apps’, but you get everything through the new Outlook-like web interface.  There is also the ability to sync your mail account, calendars, and contacts to your Windows 8 PC and most mobile devices including Windows 8 Phone, Android, and iPhone/iPad.  Another benefit is the ability to create up to 50 users (versus 10 in Google Apps).

When you begin the domain setup, you will have to sign into an already existing Windows Live account (or create a new Windows Live account under the new domain) that will be used as the administrating account for the domain.  If you have multiple domains, I believe you should be able to use the same administrative account to manage all of them.

To setup your custom domain with use on Outlook.com mail service, go to http://domains.live.com to begin the domain setup & verification.