I'm curious how (mostly hosters) are dealing with the cPanel autodiscover conflict? The problem is it seems cPanel uses the same /Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml setup as Exchange does. When Outlook does an autodiscover lookup it starts in this order:

• https://roodomain.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml
• https://autodiscover.rootdomain.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml
• http://autodiscover.rootdomain.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml
• _autodiscover._tcp.rootdomain.com SRV 

So it is not uncommon for someone to have Office365 or another Exchange hosting provider for their email but have a separateweb hosting company for their website (most of the time the company that develops the website ends up hosting it in my case).

So the issue is since cPanel has autodiscover for the root domain Outlook tries configuring that instead of moving on to the CNAME for autodiscover using the redirect method (which is what Microsoft tells us hosters to do).

I don't see a way to disable this autodiscover in cPanel on a per domain level. Just wanted some ideas/inputs from you all

First of all, I'd suggest this is more of a cPanel issue so realistically you'd be better off asking questions like this on their forums at http://forums.cpanel.net

That said, as it happens we have a mix of Windows hosting, cPanel hosting, and also hosted Exchange in our setup.

I think the key thing with this issue is to ensure that your domain in cPanel is configured to have its email routing set as "Remote Mail Exchanger", and not the default of "Local Mail Exchanger". In theory since 11.36, if the domain is configured to point elsewhere for email then cPanel should no longer respond to autodiscover requests (prior to that it didn't, and there are LOADS of complains about it online), so Outlook can then move on through the list and reach the SRV record you have configured in DNS.

In WHM go into Edit DNS Zone, select the relevant domain, and at the bottom you'll see a section titled "Email Routing" in which you can update whether cPanel considers itself to be handling email for the domain. In cPanel, you may be able to do the same thing but it will depend on whether the host has enabled the required features for editing your DNS records, if not you'd need to get them to update it.

I agree it is more of an issue with cPanel but I was more curious how everyone was wanting it. Because from my understanding its not a bug in cPanel. cPanel uses this to autodiscover clients for its builtin email for IMAP/POP3.

The problem is many people use a third party for hosting their website which most of the time uses cPanel. So many times their email is not hosted with the same place as their website. So they must be running into this same thing.

The domain I'm having issues with already has Remote Mail Exchanger set and has the CNAME for autodiscover going to my HTTP REDIRECT server and an SRV record in for autodiscover. The issue is Outlook checks the ROOT domain first which is their website/cPanel server that has autodiscover. cPanel is responding and sending back a valid configuration even though they don't have a mailbox configured on cPanel.

I see people on the web with issues on this with Office 365. Ideally it would be nice if Outlook checked autodiscover.domain.com FIRST instead of the root domain. That would solve this issue.

...and has the CNAME for autodiscover going to my HTTP REDIRECT server

Can you clarify what you mean by your HTTP REDIRECT server? I believe the CNAME should be pointing to the relevant Exchange server, so for instance for 365 you'd point it to autodiscover.outlook.com. so requests are sent there. From your description it sounds like you're pointing the CNAME elsewhere.

One thing you could try is putting each of the autodiscover.xml URLs into your browser and see what is returned. You should either get an XML output returned (you may be prompted for login credentials relating to your email account), or if it's pointing to the cPanel server it should in theory either return a 404 or a message saying that autodiscover is turned off.

First of all, I'd suggest this is more of a cPanel issue so realistically you'd be better off asking questions like this on their forums at http://forums.cpanel.net

That said, as it happens we have a mix of Windows hosting, cPanel hosting, and also hosted Exchange in our setup.

I think the key thing with this issue is to ensure that your domain in cPanel is configured to have its email routing set as "Remote Mail Exchanger", and not the default of "Local Mail Exchanger". In theory since 11.36, if the domain is configured to point elsewhere for email then cPanel should no longer respond to autodiscover requests (prior to that it didn't, and there are LOADS of complains about it online), so Outlook can then move on through the list and reach the SRV record you have configured in DNS.

In WHM go into Edit DNS Zone, select the relevant domain, and at the bottom you'll see a section titled "Email Routing" in which you can update whether cPanel considers itself to be handling email for the domain. In cPanel, you may be able to do the same thing but it will depend on whether the host has enabled the required features for editing your DNS records, if not you'd need to get them to update it.

• Proposed as answer by Simon_WuMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator 3 hours 38 minutes ago

You have to remember that I'm a hoster. For hosters we make a CNAME point to a redirect server which that redirects to the actual exchange server.

Like here: http://www.msexchange.org/articles-tutorials/exchange-server-2010/mobility-client-access/using-autodiscover-large-numbers-accepted-domains-part1.html

The whole point is cPanel response to https://domain.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml. Since the root domain is the first domain that Outlook checks it gets a valid response and auto configures for the cPanel server instead of the actual Microsot Exchange server.

I'm finding more and more problems with this and others complaining with Office365 to. Many people use a different vendor for their hosted Exchange vs where they host their website. This is when the issue occurs.

http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/156/t/293985.aspx

OK, I could be wrong but I think I see the issue. If I understand your setup, you've followed the guide you linked to, and setup IIS to use HTTP Redirect to forward requests it receives onto the final destination. Then on the domain(s) you want to go to that destination you've added a CNAME for autodiscover.domain.com pointing to that redirection server? Is that right?

Since the order that autodiscover operates is handled by the email client there's no way to change that order. As long as the initial two steps (root domain with https then autodiscover.domain.com with https) fail then the client will move to the third option, which is why I asked whether if you manually try going to those addresses if it 404s or gives a response. If you get a response then THAT is the issue you need to fix, since that will prevent the client even trying to move to the next method.

Looking through the entire guide, I see in part two it also spells out the records you need to add for the HTTP Redirect method, however that lists adding an A record to the domain for autodiscover.domain.com, not a CNAME. Assuming you've confirmed that the first two steps are definitely failing so it can proceed to step 3, try changing the CNAME record to an A record instead. I don't know if that will make a difference, but it's the one difference between what you're trying and what is listed in the guide. Some other guides relating to autodiscover mention adding a CNAME, but those are referring to the CNAME being directed directly to the final destination (as I said previously about pointing to autodiscover.outlook.com), not the method mentioned in this guide.

Issue needs to be sorted on the hosting provider side. All you can do client-side is to instruct Outlook to bypass the HTTPS Root domain lookup for Autodiscover, by using the reg keys mentioned here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2212902

Obviously, nothing you can do for home PCs, mobile devices, etc.

Yeah your right. The hoster has to turn off the global autodiscover for Outlook setting under tweak settings in cPanel. It is off by default.

Its completely stupid that you can't override the setting per domain in cPanel. Really big screw up on their part. They are assuming everyone hosting their website with cPanel uses the cPanel email