Archive for November 12th, 2008
Question Asked: How Can I Use Gmail For My Domain Name E-mail?
You’ve got two completely different options. One is the “Easy” way, and the other is “Not so easy”.
The easy way:
- Go to your domain registrar control panel and create an email forwarding account for your domain.
- Decide what your branded email address will be (for example, john@johnsmith.com) and forward it to your Gmail address. You do this by filling up two fields in your domain registrar’s email forwarding control panel:
- In the “Add Forward” field, type in the left portion of your branded email address, in this example john.
- In the “Forward Mail To” field, type in your current Gmail address: johnsmith@gmail.com.
- Log on to Gmail.
- Click on Settings (you’ll find the link in the top right corner).
- Click on Accounts.
- Click on Add Another Email Address.
- Add your new, branded address: john@johnsmith.com
- Click on the Next Steps button.
- Click on the Send Verification button. Gmail will now send you a message with a link that you must click to verify that in fact you own your branded domain. Since in step 2 you have already forwarded your branded address to your Gmail address, the verification email will be automatically forwarded to your regular Gmail address.
- Open the verification email and click on the verification link. You’re almost done.
- Go back to the Accounts tab of the Settings menu (see 4 and 5). You should see your new branded email address already listed there.
- Click on the link that says ‘make default’ next to your branded address.
- Check the radio button next to “always reply from my default address”.
The “Not so easy” way:
- Sign up for Google Apps (link), and follow the steps they give you to configure your account, and settings.
- Sign in to your hosting account, and go to the MX record maintenance page.
- Delete all existing MX entries.
- Enter the following MX records.
- Save your changes. Your MX records are now configured to point to Google. Keep in mind that changes to MX records may take up to 48 hours to propagate throughout the Internet.
-
MX Server address Priority ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. 10 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. 20 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. 20 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. 30 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. 30 ASPMX4.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. 30 ASPMX5.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. 30 Note: ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM is the top priority mail server. Don’t assign the top priority to any other servers. Be sure to include trailing dot (.) at the end of any full-qualified domain names (for example, server.example.com.) if your MX records require this format.
- Save your changes. Your MX records are now configured to point to Google. Keep in mind that changes to MX records may take up to 48 hours to propagate throughout the Internet.
In either case, any message sent to you will end up in your Gmail account, and you’ll be able to respond there. In the “Easy” case, it’s a forwarded message sent from your mail server. In the “Not so easy” case, it’s actually delivered directly to Gmail.
If you’ve got the ability to utilize the “Not so Easy” way, that’s the preferred way of doing things. Keep in mind that you’re now limited to whatever size mailbox that Google has alloted you, and bound by the rules of Google’s mail service, and not your webhost’s.