Category Archives: Office 365

Configure and Test SMTP for Office 365

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After done about 60+ Office 365 migrations, I’ve noticed that almost all customers have Applications, Multi function printers or other devices that send some kind of email to end-users or suppliers/Customers.
These devices normally use the SMTP-Protocol.

To make sure that the emails is sent secure, Microsoft recommend to Authenticate the Application or Device which is going to send email.

I always recommend the customers to create one or several specific Office 365 Accounts with a Exchange Online license.This way you can set password never expire and choose a complex password with 16 characters.

Configure the Application or Device with the following settings:
SMTP Server: smtp.office365.com
Encryption/TLS: YES
Port: 587
And of course, make sure to enter the specific account under username and password.

Can I test the SMTP connection?

Of course you can test the connection and the credentials before you deploy this solution.
I’ve created a simple Powershell script that can test this:

$smtpcred = Get-Credential
Send-MailMessage –From SMTP@thecloudgeek.net –To Administrator@thecloudgeek.net –Subject “Testing SMTP” –Body “This email is sent from Office365 SMTP server for test purpose” -SmtpServer smtp.office365.com -Credential $smtpcred -UseSsl -Port 587

This script can come in handy when some customer call you to report that the email from the Applications/Devices isn’t working correctly. You can test the connection and the credentials easily.
Make sure that you change the mail-addresses, the Subject and Body after your needs.

Remember
not all application and devices have support for TLS and or to use specific credentials when sending mail through smtp servers.
To solve this, you might need to install a SMTP relay server in your server-infrastructure.

 

For more informations about other solutions and limits, visit Technet

Getting Started with Office 365

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The great benefits of working with SaaS,is that you don’t really need any infrastructure to get started. For example you could basically get started with an Office 365 tenant in just a couple of minutes.

With all new startup companies and young and bright people start up there own business, its critical to have basic it-structure from start to a limited cost.

Therefor, I will simply show how easy you could get started with office 365 with the basic functions like email, OneDrive for Business, Skype for Business, Sharepoint, so on and so forth.

 

Create a Office 365 tenant with E3 trail licenses:

Go to Microsoft Office 365 setup guide for E3 licenses here.

Enter the information as required:

Be sure to select the correct country, so the tenant is provisioned in the correct datacenter for your location and then press next.

Office365_start_tenant

(If you want to choose witch license to get started with, you can do this at https://products.office.com/en-us/business/compare-office-365-for-business-plans Select the subscription you would like to try by clicking “Free trail”)

Now its time to enter the information for the first Office 365 account in your tenant.
Normally, you would like to create a account named “Admin” of some sort.

Be sure to double-check the “Company name” that creates the first account.
This name cannot be changed later on. This name will also appear in the tenant, for example thecloudgeek.sharepoint.com.
Also make sure to save the credentials you insert!

Office365_first_user

Confirm you´re not a robot:

office365_robot

Enter the code, and press “Create my account”

office365_create_account

The tenant will now be provisioned, it make take a couple of minutes before all services are functional and working as planed.

 

The tenant will now be provisioned, it make take a couple of minutes before all services are functional and working as planed.

office365_settingthingsup

 

Get all Office 365 services working with your custom domain!

When the tenant is provisioned, you will only have the *.onmicrosoft domain in your tenant. Of course you need to add your private custom domain.

Here is how to!

  1. Go to the office 365 portal site Portal.office365.com and login with your Admin-credentials
  2. Go to the admin center and select “Domains”
  3. Click on “Add Domain”

 

domains

 

 

 

 

4. Add your domain by following the guide.

You will need to verify that you own the domain before you can start using it.
This is normally done by adding a TXT record into your dns zone.
It regularly looks something like this:

TXT name TXT value TTL
@ MS=ms35523824 3600

5. When the domain is verified, you can add all those records that actually will make office 365 work:

 

CNAME RECORDS
Host name Points to address or value  TTL
autodiscover autodiscover.outlook.com 3600
sip sipdir.online.lync.com 3600
lyncdiscover webdir.online.lync.com 3600
msoid clientconfig.microsoftonline-p.net 3600
enterpriseregistration enterpriseregistration.windows.net 3600
enterpriseenrollment enterpriseenrollment.manage.microsoft.com 3600

 

TXT RECORDS
TXT Name TXT value   TTL
@ v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all 3600

 

SRV RECORDS
Service Protocol Port Weight Priority Name Target
_sip _tls 443 1 100 @ sipdir.online.lync.com
_sipfederationtls _tcp 5061 1 100 @ sipfed.online.lync.com

 

MX RECORDS
Priority Host name Points to address or value TTL
0 @ testcompany-com.mail.protection.outlook.com 3600

 

6. When all above records is tested, your Office 365 services will be online and all functional!

7. Now you need to create some new users and assign some licenses, and you are good to go with a basic office 365 tenant

 

Office 365 – Shared mailbox sync issues

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I have been using shared mailbox for the majority of customers running Office 365 for a long time.Its a great way to create a mail-structure for different type of groups in an organisation.

For exampel Order@thecloudgeek.net,Info@thecloudgeek.net,Billing@thecloudgeek.net so on and so forth.
This is completely free, but to access this “Shared mailbox” you need an Office 365 account with an valid license and a outlook 2010+ client installed.

However, i’ve seen a couple of issues with “Shared mailbox” as well.
Several customers have reported that they don’t get regular updates in the shared mailbox. In some case, the mailbox is not updated in several days for some users.

This is a known issue, its a bug in the “Automapping” function that make the shared mailbox automapp in the outlook client.

Here is one way to solve the issue:

 

Step 1:

Remove the users “Full permission” to the “shared mailbox” witch isn’t syncing.

Step 2:

Make sure the “Shared mailbox” disappears from the users outlook client.
(You might speed up the process by restarting outlook.)

Step 3:

Disable the automapping function and add FullAccess to the specific shared mailbox through powershell:

Add-MailboxPermission -Identity “shared mailbox name” -User ‘Users name’ -AccessRight FullAccess -InheritanceType All -Automapping $false

Step 4:

Add the shared mailbox manually through the following steps:

Right-click on your main account and select “Data file properties” -> “Advanced” -> “Advanced” -> Press “Add” and type the emailadress of the “shared mailbox”

 

The mailbox will now start to sync as it should.
Be aware of “Use cached exchange Mode” This might take up alot of disk space in the user profile disk or on C:\ depending on setup and environment.