Topic Last Modified: 2010-06-15

An accepted domain is any SMTP namespace for which an Outlook Live organization sends or receives e-mail.

Before you can create an accepted domain, you first have to enroll what is called a primary or tenant domain with Outlook Live.

Then you're ready to add an accepted domain. Here's how:

1. Make sure that the domain that you want to enroll as an accepted domain isn't already enrolled in another Microsoft Live program. If the domain is enrolled in another Microsoft Live program, you have to cancel that service before you continue. To cancel the service, see Cancel Your Outlook Live Service.
   
2. Now start the enrollment process for the accepted domain. Sign in to the Live@edu Service Management Portal with the Windows Live ID that is the administrator for the primary tenant Outlook Live domain that you have already enrolled.
   
3. Click Domains. On the Domains page, click Add Accepted Domain.
   
4. In the Domain name field, add the domain that you want to add, and then click Save.
   The Accepted domain settings page will be displayed.
   If you have created a subdomain (also referred to as a tertiary or third-level domain) of your existing tenant domain, click Refresh in the confirm section of the page. You don't have to prove domain ownership for subdomains of your tenant domain. Clicking refresh will trigger the accepted domains update. When the confirm section of the page goes away, you're done!
   If the accepted domain you are creating isn't a subdomain of the primary domain, that is, if it doesn't fall under the namespace of your existing tenant domain, you must have to prove domain ownership of the domain before you can configure it for Outlook Live.
   
5. Use the CNAME token information to prove domain ownership of the accepted domain. See Prove Domain Ownership.
   Important   You must wait at least 24 hours before you provision users or configure co-branding for this domain. If you try to provision more than 500 users or if you try to configure co-branding for this domain before waiting 24 hours, you will get errors. After 24 hours, the accepted domain will be available for selection in New Mailbox and Mailbox Details in the Web management interface for Outlook Live. It will also be selected as the domain for proxy addresses on existing mailboxes.
   
6. After the accepted domain has been created, you can configure the user password-reset settings for the accepted domain. On the Domain page, click the accepted domain that you want to configure, and then click Edit these settings under the Password Reset Settings section.