Is it possible to divert mail to my domain to Hotmail?

Question

The mail server that my web host uses for the domain (say abc.com) is not reliable and I may be loosing important mail. Is it possible to divert my mail to hotmail and use hotmail to send and receive my mail while keeping my @abc.com domain name? How do I do it and does hotmail charge for it?

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/business/office-365-small-business-small-business-software-FX103887194.aspx — Michael Hampton, Aug 17 '13 at 11:29
$5 a mail box is a little steep for me considering I have 10 mail boxes (comes to $600 a year). My business is tiny. Is there a cheaper way? — Ali, Aug 17 '13 at 11:34
@ali the 'cheaper' way is to set up forwarding rules on your mailboxes with your mail provider on an individual, per mailbox basis. This does not work if your problem is that your mail provider's setup being unreliable is the problem in the first place... You might be able to find a cheaper service than O365 that can still do the job but a reliable service does cost money, I'm afraid. Part of the reason your current provider might be so unreliable could be that they can't justify investing in the email infrastructure based on what customers are willing to pay for it. — Rob Moir, Aug 17 '13 at 11:41

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 17 '13 at 11:34

Then you should receive all domain email at other host. You can leave your website (www.abc.com) where it is, but configure DNS MX records to point to other email service provider.

You can't forward mail to Hotmail account, but you can achieve everything you need with paid service like Gmail For Business or Office 365 i.e. you must have email service available on other host for your domain.

All you need beside that is to change MX records on DNS, like this: http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=33915

I hope, your DNS is up 24/7.

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 11 '20 at 10:02

Is it possible to divert my mail to hotmail and use hotmail to send and receive my mail while keeping my @abc.com domain name?

No. The hotmail service does not allow this.

Other Providers

If you don't trust your email provider then you should consider another provider to replace them. There are plenty, however I'll highlight a few worth checking out first.

rackspace

$2/user/month

http://www.rackspace.com/email-hosting/

google apps

$5/user/month Not just email!

Note: If you got an account early enough your existing account may come with 10-100 FREE users. You CAN add a new domain to an existing account, that's pretty exciting!

http://www.google.com/intx/en_au/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html

ZoHo

Up to 20 free users.

http://www.zoho.com/mail/

Other Options?

You could setup your own email server (though that would only be worth it if you're hosting plenty of emails, like hundreds). There are not shortage of providers, some even roll email into web hosting accounts (though I imagine that's the sort of unreliable service you're trying to steer clear of).