Don't get screwed by Microsoft Office Live Small Business
In todays' New York Times, David Pogue reviewed an updated version of Microsoft's Office Live Small Business, a suite of online services for making Web sites (I'm simplifying a bit).
He failed to point out an important defensive computing aspect of any Web site, divorcing it from the domain name registration. In addition, trusting Microsoft to handle domain registration is not your best option. To fully understand this, some background is required.
A domain name, such as CNET.com or JavaTester.org is a unique name on the Internet, one that is used for both e-mail and a Web site. Conceptually speaking, all domains are registered in a big master file in the sky. Hundreds of companies, called registrars, are authorized to register domains into this huge master file. Registrars offer many services, but simply registering a domain name ranges from roughly $9 to $35 a year.
Associated with each domain is a pointer to the computer running the Web site and a pointer to the computer that receives e-mail sent to the domain. The pointer system is called DNS, for Domain Name System. The pointers are indirect. That is, rather than pointing directly to the computer(s) with the Web site or e-mail, they point instead to server computers running DNS software.* A company that hosts Web sites is obliged to run a DNS server computer to handle the finger-pointing for all the Web sites under its control.
A small business setting up a new Web site is likely to be tempted by the one-stop shopping offered by Office Live Small Business. Many registrars host Web sites and any company hosting a Web site will also register a domain name. But, you are better off getting these services from different companies.
My JavaTester.org Web site, for example, is hosted at a company called A2 Hosting and the domain is registered with GoDaddy. A2 runs a pair of DNS server computers, ns1.a2webhosting.com and ns2.a2webhosting.com, which GoDaddy associates with the domain in the big master file in the sky. (If you want to impress your friends, the ns1 and ns2 computers are technically referred to as authoritative name servers.)
For one thing, using two companies makes it easier to switch Web site hosting companies in the future, should the need arise. More importantly though, it insures the domain is yours.
There have been times when a Web site hosting company registered a domain in their name rather than in the name of their customer. For example, instead of my JavaTester.org Web site being registered to me in the big master file, it would be registered to A2hosting.** In this case, it is not my domain, even though I paid for it. For a small business, this can be a really big deal.
What about e-mail? Companies hosting Web sites can also provide e-mail, as can most registrars. Then again, you don't need either one, you can have a third party handle e-mail for your domain.
Pogue on Office Live Small Business
The first Web site I ever created was hosted on a computer run by a school. The name was something like computerdeptserver.someuniversity.edu/~michael. Everyone in the class was assigned a userid on the server, and that formed the rightmost part of the Web site address.
From what Pogue says, Office Live Small Business does a similar thing, giving out names like bobsfleabag.accommodations.officelive.com (his example) to customers only interested in free services. Using your own domain, instead of one that ends with officelive.com, is what Pogue means when he refers to "customized domains." I point this out because the term "customized domain" has no real meaning--all domain names are unique.
If you want to use your own domain name with Office Live Small Business, Pogue's review said that Microsoft charges $15 per year after the first year. While the price is certainly fair, having Microsoft handle domain registration scares me.
The Defensive Computing Approach
If you are interested in using Office Live (which I have no experience with) to create a new Web site, first go to a registrar and register your own domain. The two registrars I recommend are GoDaddy and DirectNIC. GoDaddy is cheaper ($9 per year) but DirectNIC ($15 per year) is easier to use.
If you already have a Web site, but it was registered by the hosting company, I suggest first moving the registration to GoDaddy or DirectNIC before getting started with Office Live, or start over with a new domain name. For more on this, see my posting from last month on How to fire a Webmaster.
Microsoft's documentation
Registration of a domain is too important to trust to a company, such as Microsoft, that does it as a sideline rather than it being its core business.
Consider what its FAQ page had to say after Pogue's review came out:
"Will I be charged a fee when my domain name comes up for renewal?
Domain names are renewed on an annual basis. Microsoft will automatically renew your domain name for you, and you will not be charged a renewal fee. If you already own a domain name and transfer it to Microsoft Office Live, Microsoft will pay for any future renewals."
This directly conflicts with Pogue's account and I believe Pogue.
Also, it appears that Office Live Small Business domains are renewed on an annual basis. This is an accident waiting to happen. A real registrar can lock it up for many years.
The Microsoft Office Live Small Business FAQ also refers to "redirecting" a domain and "domain redelegation." The two terms are used interchangeably. But for what? I've dealt with domains and Web sites a lot. If you asked me yesterday what these terms meant, I would have given a different definition for the first term and couldn't have guessed at the meaning of the second.
The Office Live Small Business folks use these terms to mean changing the DNS server computers associated with a domain. For an existing domain with an existing Web site, that is how you point the world to the new Web site (at Office Live Small Business).
Good news, bad news
The bad news about changing DNS servers is that the actual procedure differs for each registrar.
The good news is that Microsoft provides instructions for making the change at a number of popular registrars. See How to set up your new Web site with an existing domain name.
The bad news is that the instructions for GoDaddy don't exist. Clicking on the link results in a Page Not Found error. The instructions for register.com are also missing. In fact, all
the "redelegation" instructions are missing. Maybe they were filed under changing DNS servers.
Update. February 16, 2008: The instructions now exist, there are no more "page not found" errors.
* That the Internet grew to the extent it has over the years is due, in part, to the distributing of the responsibility for maintaining these pointers. No one company can screw everything up.
** I don't know that A2Hosting does this, I haven't tested it. This is only an example.
See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.
Michael Horowitz is an independent computer consultant and the author of several classes on Defensive Computing. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
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IMHO, GoDaddy's sleazy/unprofessional ads don't do much to inspire trust.
So believe Pogue if you want, but I'll believe my personal real-world experience.
It's very simple, guys.
When it opened in 2006, Office Live offered FREE domain-name registration and hosting. About 600,000 people signed up.
This past Monday, Microsoft launched the 2.0 version of Office Live. Now it charges $15/year for the domain-name registration (after the free first year).
Obviously, they haven't gotten around to changing their FAQ, which still reflects the old FREE system.
And commenter Zeblonite is also correct. As one of the original 600,000 people, he/she will always pay nothing. The original people will be grandfathered, and their Office Live domains will be free forever.
--David Pogue
One caveat, many registrars allow you to maintain control of DNS as well the domain and this is an excellent capability for a knowledgeable person, but many web hosting companies require that you use their DNS servers for a variety of reasons (security, virtualization, disaster recovery, etc.), so verify this requirement before selecting a host.
As to Microsoft Live, I was an original beta tester and I used an existing domain that I already owned, which MS required to be moved to their registrar at the time and after finding the service too rigid and underpowered for my needs, I decided to move to another hoster which turned into a multi-week affair to regain control of my domain name, since MS was using a registrar based in Austrailia and only (poor) email support was available. It was a valuable lesson that this article reinforces.
2. Whoever registers a domain determines who is listed as registrant ("owner") of the domain. If your registration contains obsolete or deliberately incorrect information, your registration is subject to cancellation. If your name and/or contact details are "cloaked", your domain technically belongs to the organization "cloaking" your identity. They register the domain in their name, then loan it to you.
3. I wouldn't worry too much about Microsoft owning my registration. However, when RegisterFly was kicked out of the registry system, a quarter of a million people no longer were able to control their domain names.
4. I registered domain names by proxy for my hosting customers for five years, at no charge. I've just retired, for health reasons, and it has been a *real* pain trying to get those domains to the people who should own them. It costs a year's registration to move them to another domain name reseller - and some people don't want to pay until their registration expires.
5. All the big domain name resellers offer domains as a loss leader, figuring that enough people will buy hosting to make it worth while. As a result, service is *terrible*. If Jane Doe marries and moves - common enough - and forgets her password - again, very common, shouldn't a domain name reseller allow her to pay to immediately renew an expiring domain name? Instead, they refuse, making her go through a time-consuming rigamarole while the domain name expires, and the website goes "black", and then they charge her as much as $150 or $200 to redeem her own domain name.
1. First, I?d like to thank you for pointing out the few content-related (factual ambiguity, broken links or missing Q&A) issues, which we worked to fix as soon as we read your article.
2.Domain Name Registration: If you register, renew, or transfer a domain name through Office Live Small Business , Microsoft connects you with an accredited registrar called Melbourne IT Limited. Melbourne IT or another accredited registrar will register, renew, or transfer the domain name. For the detailed terms of our service agreement:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX100750911033.aspx?mode=nochrome#DomainNameService
3. Domain Name ownership: Our customer do own their domain names not Microsoft.
4. Will I be charged a fee when my domain name comes up for renewal?
Whether or not you get charged to renew your domain name depends on the price and package offer available when you signed up for your Office Live Small Business account.
Customers who signed up on or after February 11, 2008 (after we transitioned to a single offer) will receive their domain name free for the first year, then be charged $14.95 annually at renewal thereafter. Microsoft will automatically renew your domain name for you each year unless the domain name is cancelled prior to the renewal date. As a courtesy, Microsoft will notify you via e-mail before your domain name is renewed, asking you to check your domain name information and update it, if necessary.
If you redelegated your domain name to Office Live Small Business from a different domain registrar, your domain name renewal and any associated fees will come from your original domain registrar, not Office Live Small Business.
The problem I am experiencing is very simple, and should yield a simple solution. I want to edit my DNS record for my domain that I own. This should not be an insurmountable feat, but apparently it is something which is impossible to do. The domain was mistakenly registered through Microsoft's system and therefore is in their full control. Technically, the domain is registered by Melbourne IT but only because Microsoft set up that arrangement. I supposedly own the domain, but there is no way for me to gain any control of the domain or modify any settings for the domain. So, please tell me again, how am I the owner?
I asked Microsoft to point me in the direction of the DNS edit tool, or at least a way to change the Name Servers for my domain so that I could begin the transition of web site and email to the new registrar and host. I was told that in order to gain ANY control of my DNS, I would have to completely cancel my Microsoft Office Live account. That means my email and web site will be taken offline and likely erased before I can even TOUCH the DNS settings for my domain. I don't know about you, but I've never heard of a web host or registrar that doesn't give you some basic control over the DNS configuration, and even in the rare case where you cannot edit it yourself, they will do it for you. In this case, Microsoft completely refuses to make any modifications to the DNS whatsoever until the account is completely deactivated.
If I do cancel the Office Live account, then at some point after the account is cancelled they will "give me a key" which I can then use to create a new account on Melbourne IT's web site, and then that account will be given access to the domain I supposedly own. They haven't given me any information on where this key will be sent or how long it will take for the key to be generated once the account is cancelled. At this point, I sure don't feel like I own my domain. Assuming I cancel the account and get the key, then I have to pray that this company in Australia will be timely in setting up my new account and giving me access to the DNS settings, but from what I've heard so far, that seems pretty unlikely.
So my options are, stay with Microsoft Office Live for the rest of my life or buy a new domain name and start over from scratch, or cancel my account and lose my web site and email for 1 to 3 days (if all goes well) before I get up and running on my new host.
It took me nearly TWO HOURS of explaining this problem in 10 different ways to Microsoft before they even admitted there was a phone number I could call to get Office Live help. They kept telling me that the only way to get support was to email the Office Live support address, which in itself is a complete joke. Please bear with me as I recount my hilariously awful email support experience...
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1.) I wrote:
"I need to modify the NameServers for my domain. I cannot seem to modify this information anywhere in your system. Please advise on how we can make this change, as we are moving to a different hosting arrangement for email. Thank you!"
2.) They wrote back:
"I would like to bring it to your notice that in order to change your name server you must need to cancel you domain name with Microsoft Office Live. After cancelling account, we will provide you with Domain Registration Key (DRK) and then you can change your name server and move to other web hosting service provider.
To process your request in the quickest way possible, please provide us the following details for account ownership verification and security reason:
1. First name and Last name associated with your Microsoft Office Live account.
2. Billing Address associated with associated with your Microsoft Office Live account.
3. The last four digits of the credit card number that is associated with your Microsoft Office Live account..
4. Phone number associated with your Microsoft Office Live account.
5. Windows Live ID associated with your Microsoft Office Live account.
6. Alternate email address on which you want your information
We appreciate you contacting Microsoft Office Live. If you have additional questions, concerns, or need further assistance, please be sure not to change the subject line so that we can urgently address any remaining concerns."
[NOTE: OK, so I have to provide you with just about every piece of information ever to even get the time of day from you? That's just great...]
3.) Then I responded:
"Thank you for responding to this request. I have a concern about the information you have provided. You stated that we must cancel our domain name and services with Microsoft in order to make any changes to our DNS settings, however that does not seem like a standard practice nor should it be necessary.
If we cancel our account with you, our web site and email will stop functioning. Then, at some point, we will receive some code from you which will allow us to initiate a domain name transfer to another registrar, which could take days. We cannot be without email for any length of time, and certainly not for days. Please advise on how we can make this change with ZERO downtime."
4.) They responded to my inquiry with this completely insane message:
"At the outset, please accept our sincere gratitude for the time taken and efforts made by you in sharing your concerns with us. I understand that you want to change the DNS settings for your Office Live domain without having any interruption on the email service. Let me begin by attempting to explain the situation.
To change the DNS settings for your domain, you need to unlock the domain at the Registrar's end. In order to unlock the domain you require the system generated Domain Registration Key, which can be obtained only after cancellation of a domain.
Currently, Microsoft Office Live does not support partial cancellation. You need to cancel the whole subscription (email and website) to transfer your domain away from Office Live. Please be informed that the server may take some time to respond to the changes made to the DNS settings. Therefore I suggest you to contact the Registrar or the Host Provider for further instructions on email interruptions while changing the settings.
We do not want to mislead our valued customers like you by providing resolution for the product we do not have an expertise in."
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Ummm... EXCUSE ME??!? "Therefore I suggest you to contact the Registrar or the Host Provider for further instructions on email interruptions while changing the settings."
Hello? Microsoft? Is anybody home? YOU, I REPEAT, ***YOU*** ARE THE REGISTRAR AND HOST PROVIDER!!!
Oh, but it gets so much better...
"We do not want to mislead our valued customers like you by providing resolution for the product we do not have an expertise in."
Yes, they don't want to mislead me, a "valued" customer, by offering me any kind of actual support for their product, as apparently they "do not have an expertise in" their own product nor do they have any way of supporting it.
Please, shoot me now.
After that beautiful email experience, I called 1-800-MICROSOFT and was told after about 20 minutes of arguing that I needed to call MSN support instead for help with Office Live. I was told this by a supervisor, who I got on the phone almost immediately after getting a live human on the line.
So, I called MSN support (800-386-5550) and was told that I needed to enter an updated credit card number before I could speak with a person, or I could say "I don't have an account." I told the phone system "I don't have an account" about 15 times and every time it said it couldn't understand me. I don't have an unusual accent and was speaking very clearly into the phone. After pressing about 50 random buttons on my keypad, I was finally able to get the phone system to patch me through to a live human. The live human promptly informed me that I would have to call 1-800-MICROSOFT for support on this issue as that is the customer support number. I forcefully explained that I had already called that number and they told me to call MSN support. The person at MSN support vehemently denied having any ability to assist me, and told me that I would have to call 1-800-MICROSOFT.
I once again called 1-800-MICROSOFT and, of course, I was told to call MSN support again. I explained that I had already spoken with MSN support and that there is no one there who can help me. The person at the customer service line told me that she can only tell me where to go to get support, and cannot actually give me any real support. She said to call back if MSN support was not able to help me on the second try.
At this point I was just curious to know what would happen if I kept calling both of these numbers repeatedly until someone gave me an answer I wanted to hear. I called MSN support again and went right into explaining the problem and what I had just been through. The person put me on hold for a few minutes and then gave me a PHONE NUMBER FOR MICROSOFT OFFICE LIVE SUPPORT!!! After being told by multiple people for OVER AN HOUR that there is NO PHONE SUPPORT for Microsoft Office Live, I was given this toll free number:
866-591-5483
I called it, and was quickly connected to a person who sounded like he might actual be in America. This was very surprising as I could have sworn this department did not even exist, and if it did, it was surely on Mars. I once again explained the problem to him (Colby was his name) and he told me the same thing I'd heard from every other department. There is no way to modify the DNS or Name Servers without completely taking my web site and email offline. Their system is simply not built to handle that extremely simple task.
I proceeded to provide him with a technical specification of how they could reprogram their system to avoid this problem going forward, as I'm sure many people are experiencing this difficult situation. I also told him that I would file a class action lawsuit against Microsoft if they did not change their system and that I would be calling him every day until the system is changed. There is no technical reason why they must do things this way, so the only reason would be greed in addition to general hatred for their "valued" customers. He "apologized for the inconvenience" and, completely stymied, I was forced to hang up the phone.
So, PLEASE, anyone out there who is having this problem... CALL 866-591-5483 AND COMPLAIN! I am going to call them every day just to see what will happen, but the more people who get that number and call it, the more likely this is to change.
Thanks for listening...
End of Rant.
https://support.officelive.live.com/eform.aspx?productKey=officelivesmbuscancel&ct=eformts&scrx=1
There is a good chance that you will have to login first, before this link will work. Good luck everyone. I guess Microsoft has begun starting services that are very difficult to stop. Because even after you fill-out this online form, it does not indicate the service has been cancelled. How hard is it to stop a service from Microsoft? I have used plenty of other internet services that are simple to stop. Are we going to need to mail a form with a notarized copy of our driver's license and credit card in the future?