Create DNS records at Hostgator for Office 365

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Check the Domains FAQ if you don't find what you're looking for.

If Hostgator is your DNS hosting provider, follow the steps in this article to verify your domain and set up DNS records for email, Skype for Business Online, and so on.

Important: 

• You must perform the first procedure in the following list, Point your domain to your hosting account, before you add DNS records by using any of the other procedures in this article.

• (Need more help? Get support.)

• Point your domain to your hosting account

• Add a TXT record for verification

• Add an MX record to route email

• Add six CNAME records

• Add a TXT record for SPF to help prevent email spam

• Add two SRV records

After you make all of these changes at Hostgator, your domain will be set up to work with Office 365 services.

To learn about webhosting and DNS for websites with Office 365, see Use a public website with Office 365.

Note:  Typically it takes about 15 minutes for DNS changes to take effect. However, it can occasionally take longer for a change you've made to update across the Internet's DNS system. If you're having trouble with mail flow or other issues after adding DNS records, see Troubleshoot issues after changing your domain name or DNS records.

Point your domain to your hosting account

Important: You must perform this procedure before you perform any of the other procedures in this article.

Follow these steps to associate your domain and hosting accounts.

1. To get started, go to your domain management page at Hostgator by using this link. You'll be prompted to log in.

   

2. Choose Manage Domains.

   

3. On the Manage Domains page, in the My Domains area, choose the domain you want to update.

   

4. Choose Name Servers.

   

5. On the Name Servers page for your domain, in the To point this domain to an existing host account drop-down list, select the hosting account that is associated with your domain.

   

6. Choose Save Name Servers.

   

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Add a TXT record for verification

Important: Before you perform this procedure, you must first perform the procedure in the first section of this article, Point your domain to your hosting account.

Before you use your domain with Office 365, we have to make sure that you own it. Your ability to log in to your account at your domain registrar and create the DNS record proves to Office 365 that you own the domain.

Note:  This record is used only to verify that you own your domain; it doesn't affect anything else. You can delete it later, if you like.

1. To get started, go to your cPanel page at Hostgator. You'll be prompted to log in first.

   (Each hosted account at Hostgator is assigned a unique cPanel address. Your cPanel address should look like this: https://YourSiteAddress:secure-port-number. The sign-up email you received from Hostgator will specify that address.)

   Important: To have a cPanel associated with your domain, you need a hosting account with Hostgator. To get started with Office 365, you can either purchase a hosting account from Hostgator or redelegate your nameservers to point to Office 365.

   

2. On the Control Panel page, in the Domains area, choose Advanced DNS Zone Editor.

   (You may have to scroll down.)

   

3. On the Advanced DNS Zone Editor page, in the Add a Record area, in the boxes for the new record, type or copy and paste the values from the following table.

   (Select the Type value from the drop-down list.)

   Name	TTL	Type	TXT Data
   Use your domain_name. (for example, fourthcoffee.com.) This value MUST end with a period (.)	1	TXT	MS=msXXXXXXXX Note: This is an example. Use your specific Destination or Points to Address value here, from the table in Office 365. How do I find this?

   

4. Choose Add Record.

   

5. Wait a few minutes before you continue, so that the record you just created can update across the Internet.

Now that you've added the record at your domain registrar's site, you'll go back to Office 365 and request Office 365 to look for the record.

When Office 365 finds the correct TXT record, your domain is verified.

1. Go to the Domains page.

2. On the Domains page, choose the domain that you are verifying.

   

3. On the Setup page, choose Start setup.

   

4. On the Verify domain page, choose Verify.

   

Note:  Typically it takes about 15 minutes for DNS changes to take effect. However, it can occasionally take longer for a change you've made to update across the Internet's DNS system. If you're having trouble with mail flow or other issues after adding DNS records, see Troubleshoot issues after changing your domain name or DNS records.

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Add an MX record so email for your domain will come to Office 365

Important: Before you perform this procedure, you must first perform the procedure in the first section of this article, Point your domain to your hosting account.

1. To get started, go to your cPanel page at Hostgator. You'll be prompted to log in first.

   (Each hosted account at Hostgator is assigned a unique cPanel address. Your cPanel address should look like this: https://YourSiteAddress:secure-port-number. The sign-up email you received from Hostgator will specify that address.)

   Important: To have a cPanel associated with your domain, you need a hosting account with Hostgator. To get started with Office 365, you can either purchase a hosting account from Hostgator or redelegate your nameservers to point to Office 365.

   

2. On the Control Panel page, in the Mail area, choose MX Entry.

   (You may have to scroll down.)

   

3. In the Email Routing area, select Remote Mail Exchanger.

   

4. Choose Change.

   

5. On the MX Entry Maintenance page, in the Add a New Record area, in the boxes for the new record, type or copy and paste the values from the following table.

   (You may have to scroll down.)

   Priority	Destination
   0 For more information about priority, see What is MX priority?	<domain-key>.mail.protection.outlook.com Note: Get your <domain-key> from your Office 365 portal account. How do I find this?

   

6. Choose Add New Record.

   

7. If there are any other MX records in the MX Records section, remove each of them:

   Begin by choosing Delete in the Action column for one of the other records.

   

8. Choose Delete to confirm the removal of that record.

   

9. Use the same process to remove each of the other records, keeping only the one that you created earlier in this procedure.

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Add the six CNAME records that are required for Office 365

Important: Before you perform this procedure, you must first perform the procedure in the first section of this article, Point your domain to your hosting account.

1. To get started, go to your cPanel page at Hostgator. You'll be prompted to log in first.

   (Each hosted account at Hostgator is assigned a unique cPanel address. Your cPanel address should look like this: https://YourSiteAddress:secure-port-number. The sign-up email you received from Hostgator will specify that address.)

   Important: To have a cPanel associated with your domain, you need a hosting account with Hostgator. To get started with Office 365, you can either purchase a hosting account from Hostgator or redelegate your nameservers to point to Office 365.

   

2. On the Control Panel page, in the Domains area, choose Advanced DNS Zone Editor.

   (You may have to scroll down.)

   

3. Add the first of the six CNAME records.

   On the Advanced DNS Zone Editor page, in the Add a Record area, in the boxes for the new record, type or copy and paste the values from the first row in the following table.

   (Select the Type value from the drop-down list.)

   Name	TTL	Type	CNAME
   autodiscover.domain_name. (for example, autodiscover.fourthcoffee.com.) This value MUST end with a period (.)	3600	CNAME	autodiscover.outlook.com
   sip.domain_name. (for example, sip.fourthcoffee.com.) This value MUST end with a period (.)	3600	CNAME	sipdir.online.lync.com
   lyncdiscover.domain_name. (for example, lyncdiscover.fourthcoffee.com.) This value MUST end with a period (.)	3600	CNAME	webdir.online.lync.com
   msoid.domain_name. (for example, msoid.fourthcoffee.com.) This value MUST end with a period (.)	3600	CNAME	clientconfig.microsoftonline-p.net
   enterpriseregistration.domain_name.. (for example, enterpriseregistration.fourthcoffee.com.) This value MUST end with a period (.)	3600	CNAME	enterpriseregistration.windows.net
   enterpriseenrollment.domain_name.. (for example, enterpriseregistration.fourthcoffee.com.) This value MUST end with a period (.)	3600	CNAME	enterpriseenrollment.manage.microsoft.com

   

4. Choose Add Record.

   

5. Add each of the other five CNAME records.

   In the Add a Record section, create a record by using the values from the next row in the table, and then again choose Add Record to complete that record.

   Repeat this process until you have created all six CNAME records.

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Add a TXT record for SPF to help prevent email spam

Important: You cannot have more than one TXT record for SPF for a domain. If your domain has more than one SPF record, you'll get email errors, as well as delivery and spam classification issues. If you already have an SPF record for your domain, don't create a new one for Office 365. Instead, add the required Office 365 values to the current record so that you have a single SPF record that includes both sets of values. Need examples? Check out these details and sample SPF records. To validate your SPF record, you can use one of these SPF validation tools.

Important: Before you perform this procedure, you must first perform the procedure in the first section of this article, Point your domain to your hosting account.

1. To get started, go to your cPanel page at Hostgator. You'll be prompted to log in first.

   (Each hosted account at Hostgator is assigned a unique cPanel address. Your cPanel address should look like this: https://YourSiteAddress:secure-port-number. The sign-up email you received from Hostgator will specify that address.)

   Important: To have a cPanel associated with your domain, you need a hosting account with Hostgator. To get started with Office 365, you can either purchase a hosting account from Hostgator or redelegate your nameservers to point to Office 365.

   

2. On the Control Panel page, in the Domains area, choose Advanced DNS Zone Editor.

   (You may have to scroll down.)

   

3. On the Advanced DNS Zone Editor page, in the Add a Record area, in the boxes for the new record, type or copy and paste the values from the following table.

   (Select the Type value from the drop-down list.)

   Name	TTL	Type	TXT Data
   Use your domain_name. (for example, fourthcoffee.com.) This value MUST end with a period (.)	3600	TXT	v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all Note: We recommend copying and pasting this entry, so that all of the spacing stays correct.

   

4. Choose Add Record.

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Add the two SRV records that are required for Office 365

Important: Before you perform this procedure, you must first perform the procedure in the first section of this article, Point your domain to your hosting account.

1. To get started, go to your cPanel page at Hostgator. You'll be prompted to log in first.

   (Each hosted account at Hostgator is assigned a unique cPanel address. Your cPanel address should look like this: https://YourSiteAddress:secure-port-number. The sign-up email you received from Hostgator will specify that address.)

   Important: To have a cPanel associated with your domain, you need a hosting account with Hostgator. To get started with Office 365, you can either purchase a hosting account from Hostgator or redelegate your nameservers to point to Office 365.

   

2. On the Control Panel page, in the Domains area, choose Advanced DNS Zone Editor.

   (You may have to scroll down.)

   

3. Add the first of the two SRV records.

   On the Advanced DNS Zone Editor page, in the Add a Record area, in the boxes for the new record, type or copy and paste the values from the first row in the following table.

   (Select the Type value from the drop-down list.)

   Name	TTL	Type	Priority	Weight	Port	Target
   _sip._tls.domain_name. (for example, _sip._tls.fourthcoffee.com.) This value MUST end with a period (.)	3600	SRV	100	1	443	sipdir.online.lync.com
   _sipfederationtls._tcp.domain_name. (for example, _sipfederationtls._tcp.fourthcoffee.com.) This value MUST end with a period (.)	3600	SRV	100	1	5061	sipfed.online.lync.com

   

4. Choose Add Record.

   

5. Add the other SRV record.

   In the Add a Record section, create a record by using the values from the next row in the table, and then again choose Add Record to complete that record.

Note:  Typically it takes about 15 minutes for DNS changes to take effect. However, it can occasionally take longer for a change you've made to update across the Internet's DNS system. If you're having trouble with mail flow or other issues after adding DNS records, see Troubleshoot issues after changing your domain name or DNS records.

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Still need help?

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