How does Office 365 manage my DNS records? Print

Advantages

• You don’t have to worry about making mistakes in the values you enter for the DNS records for Office 365 services.

• You have more flexibility in your choice of domain registrar and DNS host. Any provider that lets you change your nameserver records will work, even if the provider doesn’t support all the required record types.

• When Office 365 adds new DNS records, you don’t have to make updates.

Disadvantages

• You can’t change your DNS records to host email outside of Office 365.

• If you already use a public website with your domain for its address, like www.fourthcoffee.com, you must redirect people to that address from Office 365. Setting up redirection requires a static IP address, which is not always easily available for public websites.

• If your current domain registrar doesn’t allow you to change your domain's nameserver records, you have to switch to a different registrar to use this DNS management option.

Advantages

• You control the DNS records for Office 365 services.

• If you have a public website with your domain for its address, like www.fourthcoffee.com, you don't have to worry about using redirection to make sure people can still get to your website after you set up your domain in Office 365.

• You have the flexibility to host email somewhere else, such as with an on-premises Exchange server.

Disadvantages

• You have to set up the DNS records for Office 365 services yourself (unless you have a GoDaddy domain).

• If your current DNS host doesn’t support all of the required record types for Office 365, some Office 365 features won’t be available and you might need to switch to a different DNS host. Learn about the potential service limitations.

• When Office 365 changes requirements for DNS records, or adds new services, you have to make updates yourself at your DNS host.