Roxy

Google Apps is a group of web-based applications offered to manage your domain for Free. If you are familiar with using GMail for your own personal email then you may want to look into Google Apps for your domain.

Signing up for Google Apps is simple just visit: Google Apps

With Google Apps you will get the following features:

* Gmail
* Google Talk
* Google Calendar
* Docs & Speradsheets
* Page Creator
* Start Page

Gmail Setup

Assuming that you have followed the directions above and signed up then please proceed. The first step requires establishing to Google that you are the owner of the domain that you want setup for Google Apps. This can be done one of two ways:

* Editing your CNAME (only if you know what your are doing)
* Creating a special HTML document and uploading it to your Account (best option)

Google states that it will take up to 48 hours to authenticate your account, in most cases it usually takes 15-30 minutes

At one point Google will ask you to Configuring Your MX Records. If you are a Dedicated Server owner you can do this step yourself. Otherwise, you will need to contact Support.

Configure Your MX Records

First you will need to login to WHM. Then in the sidebar, navigate to the DNS Functions section and click on Edit DNS Zone.

You should then see a list of all the domains on your server. Select the domain that you want to edit and then press, Edit. You should then see a loosely organized page like the following:

In the section Labeled in red entered the following information:

* First Field: Enter your domain name with a trailing dot (example: yourdomain.com.)
* Second Field: DO NOT CHANGE
* Third Field: Make sure MX is selected from the drop-down menu.
* Fourth Field: Enter 10 (this is the priority value)
* Fifth Field: Enter ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. (don't forget about the trailing dot)


Now look near the bottom of the screen in the section labeled Add New Entries Below this Line (Highlighted in Red). You will have to fill out 4 of those 5 lines with the following information. Fill out the information just like you did in the step above.

Line1= Priority: 20 | Mail Server: ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.

Line2= Priority: 30 | Mail Server: ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.

Line3= Priority: 40 | Mail Server: ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.

Line4= Priority: 50 | Mail Server: ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.

1. We will do the first one for you (Line1= Priority: 20 | Mail Server: ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.)

* First Field: Enter your domain name with a trailing dot (example: yourdomain.com.)
* Second Field: DO NOT CHANGE
* Third Field: Make sure MX is selected from the drop-down menu.
* Fourth Field: Enter 20 (this is the priority value)
* Fifth Field: Enter ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. (don't forget about the trailing dot)

Now repeat these steps on the last remaining lines with the remainder of the data. For the sake of things we have added a screen capture of what your bottom four rows should look like:



When you are done, click Save.

What Next?

Now that you have configured your MX Records Google will run a series of tests to insure that everything is working correctly. Most of the time you will be able to receive mail immediately but not compose. However you will soon be able to compose after Google has established a good connection with your server.

Other Features

Please visit the Official Page for Google Apps for a detailed explanation of the Extra Features: https://www.google.com/a/

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Roxanne


Urban Roxy -Personal Blog
SH63 - the best darn shared server!

puckchaser

Also - You dont need whm to do this. Depending on your domain registrar, you can set cname and MX records yourself.

OR

If you cant set MX/Cname at your registrar, you can use a free DNS service like http://www.dnsexit.com , point your name servers at your registrar to dnsexit's name servers, and you have complete control over everything in your DNS. cnames, MX, etc.

Just sayin.. ;-)

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Roxy

Thanks =)

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Roxanne


Urban Roxy -Personal Blog
SH63 - the best darn shared server!

mgk

I believe that while you are not able to change other dns settings in cpanel there is an option to do mx-settings.

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Markus

robinson.jason

Any idea if using Google Apps for email affects the ability to run PHP based packages that send & receive Email on the clients domain (hosted on my reseller account here at Surpass)?

In otherwords, I'd like to be able to set up Google Apps for a client so they have the whole shared calendar & Gmail thing (so they don't chew up their domain's hard disc space with large email attachments that are usually big images). BUT I also need to be able to run list management software like phpList that sends emails in bulk to distribution lists at a metered pace (to avoid running over the 300 messages / hr limit). I also would like to know if I could run software like eTicket which is a support desk software package that creates new trouble tickets from emails it receives to a special account.

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pass61: Bucks Of The Northwest Chateau HOA Idaho Digital Productions Estrela Artists MyPaperCamera

puckchaser

I dont see why that wouldnt work. You would just be sending mail via smtp from your Surpass server. Depending on your application, you should be able set your smtp address and port to point to google.

Maybe if I get some time, I'll mess around with one of my domains that uses google hosted email.

Good luck.

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steveorg

I have a few Gmail migration questions.

The accounts for the domains that I'll be moving use POP3 on the Surpass server, but will use IMAP on Gmail. I suspect that many emails will be left on the Surpass server after I change the MX records. Is there an easy way to forward stranded messages to Gmail? If not, will the users still have access to webmail?

This question is related to robinson.jason's question. There are several applications on the server that use "localhost" for the smtp server. Does the setting have to be changed?

I'd like to setup a mail.mydomain.com subdomain on Google. Can I accomplish this by adding a redirect in cPanel or do I have to use Cnames with a service such as dnsexit.com that was mentioned by puckchaser? If both are possible, which is better and why? At this point I prefer redirects because I don't understand how Cnames work yet and I'd rather not add another service to the mix, but I'd prefer Cnames if it provides better performance.

I'd like to confirm mgk's belief that there is an option for mx-settings in Cpanel. I evaluated Gmail on a test domain and I used Cpanel 11 for the MX settings. It may be worth editing the first post in this thread accordingly.

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Steve

puckchaser

Steveorg -

You can do it with a redirect or cname. I just tried a redirect and it worked fine. Although, when you setup the google hosted mail, it tells you to setup the cname, and then it says it is verifying. So I dont know if they do a DNS lookup to verify.. or if it really matters.

The short and long of it.. is that redirect works.

You would just need to set the redirect to go to:

http://mail.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/

SMTP - Yes this would need to be changed in your apps to point to the gmail smtp, and your username/password

MX - This would definitely need to be updated.

Have fun.

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steveorg

Thanks puckchaser.

I took a look at the phpBB email setting screen. It says
Since I'd rather not use a named server, it seems that I can continue to use the local mail function. Would you agree?

The stranded emails that I mentioned were my main concern. It just occurred to me that I can check this on the test domain that I set up for evaluation. duhh! I was able to login to webmail, and fortunately, an old piece of spam was sitting in the inbox. Who ever thought that I'd be thankful for spam?

So at least I have a backup plan. However, I'd still prefer an easy way to forward stranded message. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.

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Steve