Blog
What's changing in Microsoft 365 mail flow, and what it means for the printers, scanners and apps in your building that still just speak SMTP.
Your Last Exchange Server Just Got a Deadline
Exchange Online has started slowing down, and will eventually refuse, mail from Exchange 2016 and 2019 servers that missed the October 2025 update. If the last Exchange you own is the box that still relays the scanners, this one's for you.
Basic Auth for SMTP Didn't End in April
If you've read that Microsoft switched off Basic Authentication for SMTP AUTH this spring, you read a plan Microsoft scrapped in January. The real date is the end of December, and it's a softer one than the old, for now.
Closing Direct Send Without Silencing the Scanners
Direct Send lets anyone on the internet drop mail into your tenant as one of your own users, and last year attackers noticed. Exchange Online can reject it now. The catch is the scanner that has quietly relied on it for years.