Google is the king of giving away great products. One of my favorite is Google Apps. The best part of Google apps is the ability to use gmail under your domain. So you can keep your john@imadoe.com and get all the benefits of Gmail.

To get started go to google.com/a.

Click get started. I’m just going to use the free version. I don’t need any extras or want to pay per user.

Google needs to know your domain. I already have a domain so I’ll enter it.

Be sure to understand, that you MUST alter you DNS records. If you get this wrong you can really mess up your mail. Either way, it can take a while for DNS records to propagate across the internet.

Enter a username and a password.

Ok. Now we must verify domain ownership.

You have two options with this… you can either upload a file or you can change a CNAME record.

I’m going to verify it by changing the CNAME record. I’m using GoDaddy but you should be able to do this with any domain host. Google has instructions for this at http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=47283&topic=9196.

So, I’m going to GoDaddy to make these changes. Google has instructions for this at http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=47283&topic=9196.

So I’ll take the string the google gave me and add a new CNAME record and point it to google.com.

Now I’ll click verify, and wait. Sometimes this can take up to 48 hours

To sign back in, go to google.com/a. The sign-in section isn’t oblivious. It’s in the upright hand corner. Click on returning user, sign in here.

You’ll get this:

Type your domain and select Manage this domain.

Click the Activate Email Link

They’ll give you instructions on how to change your CNAME records in the DNS. So yet, again I will be change CNAME records at GoDaddy.

When you’ve made the changes, click the “I’ve completed these steps” button in at the Google Apps dashboard.

Google will check your records. Again, this can take up to 48 hours.

When that’s done you can check your mail at http://mail.google.com/a/yourdomian.com or you can set up the account in an email client with either POP or IMAP. But that’s a post for another day.

If you want to change the URL where you check your mail, you can click on Email on the Google Apps Dashboard.

Then click on change URL.

You can the change that to mail.yourdomain.com or even a custom domain.

Follow the steps the google gives. This will involve adding a CNAME record the points to ghs.google.com

And that should do it.

Ok, let’s give this another try. My blogging last all of 6 minutes, but I’ll try harder this time. Not much of a focus right now but it may develop one later on. It will probably focus on tech resource and websites, the Mercer-Tazewell county area, and thing I find interesting in general.