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mailbox.org Support Topic Problem General information

Category General information

Tags documentation, docs, custom-domain

Conflicting documentation

Seth Falco shared this problem ago

Published

There are places in the documentation that seem to have conflicting information for the custom domains setup.

Namely these the following locations:

On one page, it uses `autodiscover` and `_autodiscover._tcp`.

On the other page, it uses `autoconfig` and `_autodiscover._tcp`.

* https://kb.mailbox.org/en/private/e-mail-article/using-e-mail-addresses-of-your-domain#Usingemailaddressesofyourdomain-Optional:Howtoenableauto-configurationine-mailclients

* https://kb.mailbox.org/en/private/custom-domains/how-to-configure-e-mail-clients-automatically-through-dns

Here, it tells us to use CNAME for DKIM on one and that using TXT records is deprecated, but on the other it tells us use TXT records.

* https://kb.mailbox.org/en/private/custom-domains/spf-dkim-and-dmarc-how-to-improve-the-spam-reputation-of-your-domain#SPF,DKIM,andDMARC:Howtoimprovethespamreputationofyourdomain-DomainKeysIdentifiedMail(DKIM)

* https://kb.mailbox.org/en/private/e-mail-article/using-e-mail-addresses-of-your-domain#Usingemailaddressesofyourdomain-Optional:Howtoenableauto-configurationine-mailclients#Usingemailaddressesofyourdomain-CanIuseDKIM?

Could this please be cleaned up?

The same problem 0

Replies (2)

mailbox.org Support ●

Hi and thank you very much for bringing this to our attention. We will forward this to our Support-team so they can fix this in the coming days. We are reworking the knowledge base and have these changes already on our list.

Have a nice day and greetings from your

mailbox.org team

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2414911 ●

Hello, conflicts are still present.

Regarding email clients, which setup is correct? "autoconfig" or "autodiscover"?

Kind regards

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Peer Heinlein [mailbox.org] ●

Both. One is international RFC standard, the other one is Microsoft's proprietary stuff. Setup both to be prepared for everything.

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2662896 ●

Note that using CNAME to mailbox server DONT WORK : mailbox does not provides a valid HTTPS certificate for custom domain, so mail client (like Thunderbird) WONT retrieve the https://autoconfig.yourdomain.com/mail/config-v1.1.xml file.

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theJoker8814 ●

Please read the articles again.

https://autoconfig.yourdomain.com/mail/config-v1.1.xml'

Works only if your hosting the file yourself. The CNAME can work, when the E-Mail client tries HTTP, which is the original specification (read more here https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Autoconfiguration).
If you want to test it in your browser use http://autoconfig.yourdomain.com/mail/config-v1.1.xml (without the 'S').

Otherwise the most suitable would be to leave it be without the CNAME for autoconfig and only support it via SRV (which directly points the client towards mailbox.org's config-v1.1xml) .

Another solution, which requires using Cloudflare DNS - proxy the CNAME for autoconfig. Cloudflare automatically generates SSL certificates for the domain, then proxies the HTTPS request for autoconfig to the CNAME target. Therefore providing original mailbox.org config-v1.1.xml with a valid TLS ceritificate for yourdomain.com.

But it requires Cloudflare (US based company) to manage your DNS zone. Pretty sure the same can be arrange by using other vendors/ provider. However the effort to achieve it, is quite complex.

The easiest option for a working autoconfig CNAME, is in my opinion to host a own copy. Most DNS registrars bundle their DNS packages with a small web hosting product anyways.

Furthermore, I found at least 7 RFCs + Thunderbirds autoconfig, for different eMail client auto-configuration methods. Only a few of the vast majority of eMail Clients/ Apps out there really specify on which method they rely. And even if you find some information, it's mostly outdated, especially when it comes to mobile Apps. It's hard to determine a common denominator, especially if you want to support Android, iOS, Linux (Gnome Evolution), Thunderbird, Outlook,... and whatever comes next.

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2662896 ●

> The CNAME can work, when the E-Mail client tries HTTP, which is the original specification

Thunderbird only make an HTTPS request. I suppose for security reason. Same behavior for K9 mail...

> I found at least 7 RFCs + Thunderbirds autoconfig, for different eMail client auto-configuration methods

Email autoconfiguration is a mess...

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