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MAPI is Awesome but it Sucks
Problem reported by Ron Raley - 11/16/2020 at 6:04 PM
Submitted
MAPI on Outlook Desktop is pretty awesome. It works great!

That being said...

Is there any particular reason that https://autodiscover.mydomain.com must work?

Is this part of the MAPI protocol?

Why did Microsoft make this requirement?

Why can't we just turn it on for all domains and call it a day?

Why can't MAPI simply rely on SRV records like other earthlings are doing?

The SSL on autodiscover subdomain seems like a strict requirement for each domain. It definitely makes scalability cumbersome.

Why is it built this way?

Ron

9 Replies

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echoDreamz Replied
I assume for design questions on why MAPI and Outlook are the way they are, you'd have to look towards Microsoft for those answers.
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Ron Raley Replied
Hold on.  Let me update my post as it seems that Microsoft is constantly pushing updates to Outlook.

I just successfully added a SmarterMail account (MAPI enabled) as an Exchange Account (MAPI) in Microsoft Outlook for Office 365!

This particular domain only has a SRV record for autodiscover.  No A record.  Thus, I do believe this strict requirement may have been lifted. Let's Encrypt SSL automation for large deployments NOT required.

This is great and so much cleaner.

Ron
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Stefano Replied
Hi Ron,

I don't have an A record for my account that I'm using with MAPI, just an SRV record.
I just run this two commands for not asking about Office 365 account
reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover /t REG_DWORD /v PreferLocalXML /d 1
reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover /t REG_DWORD /v ExcludeExplicitO365Endpoint /d 1
Stefano
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Ron Raley Replied
Stefano,

You might not need the regex mod anymore. 

Have you tried a pc without it lately? Try setting up a MAPI account in Outlook with only the SRV record and see what happens.

Ron
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Stefano Replied
Hi Ron, I've tried in the last weeks, I've seen nothing wrong.
What do you see?

Stefano
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Ron Raley Replied
Stefano,

What I am saying is that https://autodiscover.mydomain.com is no longer a requirement to use MAPI with Outlook.

Can anyone else verify this?  Maybe I'm late in the game.

Ron
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Stefano Replied
Rod,

I've never used autodiscover.mydomain.com, I've only created the SRV record ;)

Stefano
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Seph Parshall Replied
I moved to MAPI recently and saw somewhere that NOT having an "A Record" for autodiscover.* was suggested. I had best success when there was NO "A Record" - Only SRV DNS Records used here.
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Ron Raley Replied
I could have sworn autodiscover was a requirement earlier this year. I remember the SmarterTools KB article that had it documented.

Unless I'm going crazy, which could also be the case.

Anyway, we are using only SRV records now and things are working great!

Ron

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