Multiple domains via DHCP (option 15)

Question

It seems Mac OS X (I use 10.4.10 but I suspect it affects many versions) is incompatible with receiving multiple domain names in a single string over DHCP Option 15.
If DHCP returns Option 15 with "exampledomain.com eng.exampledomain.com", then any lookup (using dig, ping, Microsoft Entourage, etc.) of a non-fully qualified domain name will fail.
You can see this in the /etc/resolv.conf file, which contains:
domain exampledomain.com eng.exampledomain.com
nameserver 10.X.X.1
nameserver 10.X.X.2
I know that putting multiple domains within the same "domain" option in DHCP is a proprietary hack but some networks still use this. Has anybody run into this and have they found a good resolution to make Mac OS X work with multiple domains?

Answer 1

While a single mailbox can be configured to receive on multiple addresses (called "proxy addresses" or "aliases"), the mailbox is configured with only one primary SMTP address (outbound address).  So if your requirement is to send
as the received address, you would not be able to do that with a single mailbox through normal means.
Some people have developed a workaround to the above limitation by configuring Outlook to use multiple POP3 accounts for a single mailbox.  See this link for additional details: 
http://blogs.technet.com/b/hot/archive/2012/04/26/how-to-add-an-alias-to-an-office-365-account-and-how-to-set-up-outlook-to-send-email-messages-as-this-alias.aspx
I would also be sure to look at the client requirements for Exchange Online.  The supported version of Outlook is going to be Outlook 2010 SP2.  Older versions may work but would not be supported.  Outlook 2003 would at best possibly
connect via POP3.
Joseph Palarchio http://www.itworkedinthelab.com