Outlook and a number of other email clients now feature autodiscovery of mail server settings and it bugs me that I don't have this set up for our domains, but I'm not sure how to do it and a quick google hasn't turned up anything. I presume it's done with some kind of SRV record in DNS - is this correct and if so what's the correct format?
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3 Answers
I am sorry I might be late to the party here. If you are still looking for a solution, I spent a weekend figuring out how to provide Auto Configuration (autodiscover what Outlook 2010 calls it) for most popular email clients including iOS.
I wrote it all down in a blog post here: http://moens.ch/2012/05/31/providing-email-client-autoconfiguration-information/ (also available via archive.org)
Outlook 2010 actually does a combination of DNS lookup and XML config. It first does a SRV lookup for _autodiscover._tcp.<yourdomain> and then does an xml POST request to your autodiscover url and expects an XML response. My post contains samples of the XML response and a link to the full autodiscover xml Response spec on MS technet.
In short: You can provide full autodiscover functionality to your users even without Exchange server.
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Your blog is gone, is this post you mention available somewhere else? Nov 18, 2013 at 15:32
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Here's an archive link that has some better formatting: web.archive.org/web/20150817115525/http://moens.ch:80/2012/05/… Apr 9, 2017 at 9:57
RFC 6186 describes how to use SRV records for e-mail services. Summary:
- SRV records like
_submission._tcp SRV 0 1 587 mail.example.com.and_pop3,_pop3s,_imap,_imaps. (Last number is the port number.) - When offering both IMAP and POP, use the first number to show which is preferred (lower is preferable).
I don't know which MUA's already implement this. Maybe KMail. Thunderbird not yet?
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1android doesn't use SRV, just autodiscover.xml: code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=45380 Nov 28, 2016 at 18:37
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kmail does not seem to, unless I have done something wrong I filed a bug Aug 19, 2021 at 20:19
So far as I know, the (Outlook) feature requires Exchange 2007 or later.
answered Aug 19, 2010 at 13:19
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I don't think it's an exchange feature, because you don't have to put in the address of your mail server...– WhiskAug 19, 2010 at 16:59
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Apologies - just found this exchangeexchange.com/forums/t/551.aspx - looks like it does use dns but is exchange specific...– WhiskAug 19, 2010 at 17:03
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No worries, it wouldn't be the first time Microsoft had commandeered a bit of terminology and implemented it in a way that stomps all over someone else's standard. :/ Aug 19, 2010 at 19:38
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Yep, and again not for the first time it's one of those things that you wish the internet would manage to sort out a single standard for, but it never happens :/– WhiskAug 19, 2010 at 22:22