Domain email forwarding state of disunion, continued

[kitchin]

I am still mad I have no good email solution of offer some of my clients, due to mail forwarding from a hosted domain being discouraged (good advice because your whole domain can easily be labeled a spam source).

Latest client uses Gmail. Google is pretty opaque about using Gmail for "mail@yourdomain.com". Apparently to do it with MX records requires a Google App with the exact same name, Gmail, as the web mail service. Not clear if this is portable.

Another way is to use Gmail to check the POP mail at yourdomain.com without changing the MX record. (POP only, IMAP not available.) But it only checks your mail about every 30 minutes unless you go through two menus on the setup screen, every time.

That's for Gmail. Most people use Outlook. For that Gmail offers IMAP & POP. For yourdomain.com setup at Outlook, the screenshots on the FQ help pages are from early in this century (August 2000 in fact). A recommended page at http://www.oit.duke.edu/email_messag...k2003smtp.html is better.

My previous rants on this subject are:

• Email hosting is essentially broken by the state of the internet, 06-06-2008,
• Gmail Weaknesses, 04-06-2008,

Welcome to my monthly newsletter!

[Bob]

Gmail hosted (MX record pointed at Gmail) can be accessed via web, POP, IMAP and supported phones...

http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/gmail.html

-Bob

[kitchin]

There is no clarity on how to do it. From the Gmail web page,
Settings/Account/Have Your own domain?
"Use Gmail with your domain for free. Learn more."
which is only has a link to the Google apps page which two links later ends up at the page Bob linked to. That's why I thought maybe it was a client app you download to setup the MX thing. Well there are probably instructions somewhere, and there is a Help forum.
Thanks for responding though!

Use Gmail with your domain for free. Learn more

[Bob]

I happened to have setup one of my Daughters Domains with Gmail Hosted mail a few weeks ago.

When you sign up they first require you prove control over the domain by creating a HTML file with code they provide. Then you press a button to test.

Once that is completed they provide you the MX records you need to set and once you have set those you need to do another test from Google to complete the process...

Here is the Welcome to Google Apps email (sanitized)

We're excited to help you offer powerful communication and sharing tools to example.net with Google Apps!

To learn how to setup and deploy Google Apps, visit our getting started resource center for tips and instructions:
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en...sources/setup/

Step 1: Sign in to the administrative control panel. Here you can manage your user accounts and customize Google Apps. To access the control panel, visit:
http://www.google.com/a/example.net/

If you haven't already signed in and created your administrator account, you can click here:
<https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/standard/setup/example.net/2-mhYBoBAAA.6n5eFO6X6YSYBgEq5cP68g.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXQg?hl=en>

Step 2: Verify domain ownership. Before we can fully activate your services, you will need to verify ownership of example.net. From the control panel, you can verify by either uploading an HTML file or creating a special CNAME record. Verifying ownership does not cause any change to your existing services.

To find more information or get in touch, visit our Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/a. Please do not reply to this email; replies are not monitored.


Sincerely,
The Google Apps Team

The link in the email, http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en...sources/setup/ , provides much more information.

-Bob

[kitchin]

So Google Apps itself has a step (2) to "Verify domain ownership". Thanks! The Google world is like some natural landscape where things are assumed to be as they are, but there are not a lot of detailed explanations. Sort of Apple-like. The iTunes site has almost nothing to read unless you sign up first.

I thought Google Apps was Google Pack, a bunch of free software (firefox, skype, real player, google earth, etc.) for one computer. Instead it is some kind of enterprise package that lets you set up numerous user accounts, etc.

[ryount]

I am using Gmail for 4 domains including my own. Changing the MX records isn't that hard. If the domain is hosted at FQ they can do it, think it's $15.

[OzHeart]

If one use Google Apps and use a domain that's presently hosted on FQ, then does that mean that domain is now taken-over and "hosted" on Google and no longer works on FQ?

[Bob]

To use Google apps you have to point various DNS entries, not all, to the addresses they provide.

For email for instance you either manage your own DNS through your Domain Registrar (or third party provider) and change your MX records only to the mail server information Google provides you or Order a MX record change from FutureQuest.

In either instance you would only be pointing your email to Google and not your web site or other DNS records.

-Bob

[kmcelrath]

Is there a way to set up the CNAME aliases that Google suggests, such as start.domain.com, using FQ? I have already changed my MX record to Gmail by resetting the CNAME to mail.domain.com. But can I set up the other aliases?

[Bob]

You can order DS-ERs for other subdomains such as start.example.com.
http://www.FutureQuest.net/Services/IR/#DS-ER

-Bob