Gmail & Hotmail for Domains

L

liming

Perch
Has anyone started using Windows Live Custom Domains ( http://domains.live.com/ ) or Google Apps for Your Domain ( https://www.google.com/a/ ) for yourself or your clients?

If you have, what's your experience on it? Is the access reliable?

My clients tend to strictly use webmail and thus store a lot of stuff on the mail server (thus taking up my disk space). I figure with using these, I can let them store as much as they want and it won't affect me.

The con might be that they are less reliant on me. Meaning if they wanted to move to another host, they could easily do so and still keep their mail. (This isn't a huge concern of mine, but it is still a factor).

Still, if the email service is reliable, then at least I can free up some resources.

Thoughts?
 
I have a few clients that like to store major amounts of email on the server. For these people I have them get a Gmail account and have all mail forwarded there from their domain account mailbox, with the domain mailbox set to not receive any mail. Then they can store all their email at Gmail. If they prefer to use webmail, Gmail is the only place they need to go. The caveat to this is that all sent mail shows as from Gmail and not their domain account mailbox. If using Outlook the outgoing mail server is the choice of the user.

For the most part (99%) Gmail has been very reliable for them.
 
they should work, just may need some minor DNS changes in custom DNS setup(on hsphere)
 
manopb said:
I have a few clients that like to store major amounts of email on the server. ...
The caveat to this is that all sent mail shows as from Gmail and not their domain account mailbox.
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They should be able to change that because Gmail allows you to change the From: address. Go to Settings / Accounts. As far as I know, its the only free webmail service that allows this. The others only allow you to change the ReplyTo.

I use Gmail exclusively for my email by forwarding to it and "normal" users never know that its from Gmail. They can only tell by looking at the full headers.

Cheers
Ross
 
I tested this and if using Outlook it shows it coming from Gmail on behalf of the email account added in settings, so that really is only a half solution, although still better than not doiing it at all.:)
 
manopb said:
I tested this and if using Outlook it shows it coming from Gmail on behalf of the email account
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I was talking more about webmail, I haven't tried Outlook with Gmail. It sounds like you're using Outlook to send with smtp via Gmail. You really don't have to do that. You can send out via an smtp server at your ISP or at Jodo and still pickup pop mail from Gmail. Your incoming and outgoing settings don't have to be the same. That would still be transparent to the user. I don't think there is anything compelling you to send through Gmail.

Ross
 
Thanks for the info!

I just found out that in order to use the Hotmail for your own domain, you need to transfer your domain name to their registrar! Also you need to pay more for POP access via Hotmail.

So it looks like I might go with gmail.
 
I am setting up google apps for a domain I have here with DNS in hpshere so that people can know how to do it :)
 
Hey Stephen, were you able to correctly do this?

I've added the new MX Server Address names (and deleted the old one) but for some reason the mail still keeps getting sent to Jodo.

Also, Google's instructions provide a MX Server Address with a trailing period ("."), but when I try to use that, hsphere gives me an error, so I did input it in without the trailing "." so could that be the problem?

(I entered the MX records like this: CP > Select Domain Name > Hit the Edit icon for "DNS configuration")

One more thing, when you try and add cusom MX Server Address, it asks for a _Name_ and _Data_, with the Data comprising of what I assume is the Priority and the MX Server Address. Can the Name field be anything? I just named it mx1, mx2, etc...
 
If you dont need mailservice hosted here, disable it and then try.
This may happen in cases where your new domain and the domain you are sending mail from to test, are on same mailserver.
For MX you need to keep the Name field blank.
 
tanmaya said:
For MX you need to keep the Name field blank.
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Thanks Tanmaya! That was the problem!

To the other's that are interested, these are the steps that I took to get it to work:

1. Login to your control panel.
2. Select the domain name that you want to change the DNS.
3. Hit the Edit icon for "DNS configuration"
4. Delete the "Built in MX records"
5. Click on "Add DNS MX Record"
6a. For the [NAME] field, leave it blank.
6b. For the [DATA] field, in the smaller input box, enter the _Priority_.
6c. For the [DATA] field, in the larger input box, enter the _MX Server address_. (NOTE: No trailing period "." is required.)

Also, I have 2 more questions:

1. Is there anyway to forward [mail.domain.com] to [google.com/a/domain.com/]? I was thinking of modifying the CNAME, but that CNAME doesn't seem to allow slashes "/"

2. If I disable Webmail on Jodo, does anyone know if that will affect the windows mail componet (CDO), i.e. sending mail via a contact form on my site?

Thanks for any help!
 
liming said:
1. Is there anyway to forward [mail.domain.com] to [google.com/a/domain.com/]? I was thinking of modifying the CNAME, but that CNAME doesn't seem to allow slashes "/"
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This is not done at DNS, but at webserver.
Add mail.domain.com as a subdomain here and setup a redirect as per below guide:
http://www.psoft.net/HSdocumentation/user_nomenu/manipulating_pages.html#redirect_url
Ensure you have deleted any DNS record for mail.domain.com before this.

liming said:
2. If I disable Webmail on Jodo, does anyone know if that will affect the windows mail componet (CDO), i.e. sending mail via a contact form on my site?
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Disabling mailservice(webmail) doesnt have any affect as long as you are using localhost as SMTP with CDO.
 
tanmaya: Thanks SO MUCH! You're a lifesaver :) Everything works great.

Well I'm officially using gmail for my domain now. I'll report back in a month and let you guys know how it is... keeping me fingers crossed :)
 
Just wanted to report back. It's been a month now and everything is sweet :)

The first few days were a little frustrating because some mail was getting lost, but I assume that's because of the whole DNS propagation thing.

Anyway, after those initial few days everything is fine :)
 
Any notice of that ?

I have some customers with interest in that, and i myself in few domains.

Mayvbe you can put the configuration on your side as an added 2 USd addon ? May of u can take the offer ...
 
tanmaya said:
Disabling mailservice(webmail) doesnt have any affect as long as you are using localhost as SMTP with CDO.
Click to expand...
I have Google Apps setup for one of my client's domains. Everything works great except contact form submissions on their site.

I'm assuming this is because the CNAME record still points to the old mail server. Should this CNAME record be changed to ghs.google.com as I have seen some other forum posts mention?

Also, the smtp server used by the website is mail.[domain].com. Earlier in my time with Jodo I had problems using localhost, so everything uses the fully qualified name now. Should that now be changed to localhost?


thanks,
.brit
 
zero said:
I have Google Apps setup for one of my client's domains. Everything works great except contact form submissions on their site.

I'm assuming this is because the CNAME record still points to the old mail server. Should this CNAME record be changed to ghs.google.com as I have seen some other forum posts mention?

Also, the smtp server used by the website is mail.[domain].com. Earlier in my time with Jodo I had problems using localhost, so everything uses the fully qualified name now. Should that now be changed to localhost?


thanks,
.brit
Click to expand...

We have changed the localhosts to work with a proper FQDN now as well, they can still get blocked in some cases but mail delievery is much better now overall.
 
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