Google Apps Email Walkthrough

The first thing you need to do to start using Google Apps is sign up for it. This is a premium service offered from Google and is fee-based. Google no longer offers a free edition to new customers.

• Sign up!

In this example, we will use the standard edition. Other editions will be similar.

Google Apps Sign-up

Select the option for "Administrator: I own or control this domain".

Enter the domain name which will have email hosted by Google.

Click the Get Started button.

Fill in the required fields and place a check next to "I understand that if I cannot alter DNS records for my domain, I may impact my organization's ability to use Google Apps".

Click the Continue button.

Google Apps Create Administrator Account

Type a username and a password. Be sure to re-enter the password.

Type the words you see in the Word Verification image.

Read the Terms and Conditions for using the Google Apps service. When you are ready, click "I accept. Continue with set up »".

This completes the registration. You are now logged in to your Google Apps Dashboard (control panel).

Verify your account

Once you create an account for your domain name, you must verify that you own the domain name.

At the top of your Dashboard you will see, Welcome to Google Apps! Click the "Continue»" button to proceed.

(If you choose to do this later, you can come back to the Dashboard anytime and click the "Activate Google Apps" button.)

Now you must login with the Google Administrator username and password you picked.

There are three ways you can verify that you own the domain:

1. You can create a TXT record for google.com.

• Select Other for the instructions so you can see your special code. Now we have to go back to HostGator for a moment.
• Login to cPanel and click the Advanced DNS Zone Editor icon.
• Select your domain name from the drop-down.
• Under Add a Record, fill in the following information:
  • Name: yourdomainname.com.
  • TTL: 14400
  • Type: TXT
  • Address: google-site-verification=Ztz_iwlwRZUu4F2Qjv3pOUJRbUZZusy8PmleQysc
  • Please note "Ztz_iwlwRZUu4F2Qjv3pOUJRbUZZusy8PmleQysc" is an example, and you should instead use the special code provided to you by Google.
• Go back to the Google Apps page and click the Verify button. DNS settings can take up to 48 hours to propagate through the Internet.

2. You can create a CNAME record to point to google.com.

• Select Other for the instructions so you can see your special code. Now we have to go back to HostGator for a moment.
• Login to cPanel and click the Advanced DNS Zone Editor icon.
• Select your domain name from the drop-down.
• Under Add a Record, fill in the following information:
  • Name: googleffffffffc4ffb5fe.yourdomainname.com.
  • TTL: 14400
  • Type: CNAME
  • Address: google.com
  • Please note "googleffffffffc4ffb5fe" is an example, and you should instead use the special code provided to you by Google.
• Go back to the Google Apps page and click the Verify button. DNS settings can take up to 48 hours to propagate through the Internet. After completing domain verification, you can remove the CNAME record. For custom URLs, however, you must leave the CNAME record intact.

3. You can add a meta tag to your site's home page.

• Copy the meta tag below, and paste it into your site's home page. The meta tag must be pasted between the HTML head tags.
  • <meta name="google-site-verification" content="Ztz_iwlwRZUu4F2Qjv3pOUJRbUZZusy8PmleQysc" />
  • Please note "Ztz_iwlwRZUu4F2Qjv3pOUJRbUZZusy8PmleQysc" is an example, and you should instead use the code provided to you by Google.
• Save the changes to your page.
• Go back to the Google Apps page and click the Verify button. Leave the meta tag in place even after verification succeeds.

4. You can upload an HTML file to your website.

• Download the HTML file by clicking the this HTML verification file link.
• Upload that file to http://yourdomain.com/ . If this is your primary domain, the correct folder is public_html.
• Confirm successful upload by viewing the new .html file in your browser.
• Go back to the Google Apps page and click the Verify button. Leave the HTML file in place even after verification succeeds.

After you click the Verify button, allow up to 48 hours for Google to verify your are the owner of the domain name.

Meanwhile, you can continue using the Google setup guide to complete your Google Apps. Alternatively, here is a walkthrough for skipping straight to email setup.

Start using Google Email

At the Google Apps Dashboard, click the Email link. You can change any of these settings as you see fit.

Click the link for Email activation Instructions on how to activate Email.

Read the instructions carefully. If your domain already has email addresses, you should create user accounts before changing your MX records.

1. Create user accounts

Click the "Create user accounts" link.

Enter a first and last name for the email user. Enter the name of his email address.

Click the "Create new user" button.

If you need to enter more emails, click the "Create another user" link.

Once finished, go back to the Dashboard tab at the top. To quickly get to the next step, click the Activate email link, located directly under the Email link.

2. Set up email delivery

If you skipped creating email users, then click the "Change MX records" link.

Google reminds you to create the email users before you change the MX records, or you may have email downtime.

Google also offers you temporary email addresses, so you can use Google mail before the MX record change. The format is similar to name@yourdomain.com.test-google-a.com (The temporary email address will be deactivated once you change the MX records.)

You see "Showing instructions for" and a drop down box. Select "cPanel" as your hosting company. Follow the instructions.

Note: The steps are for the cPanel X theme; however, most HostGator clients are using the X3 theme. Here are the instructions for X3:

1. Log in to your cPanel account.
2. Click the MX Entry icon.
3. Under Domain, in the drop-down box, select the domain name you are changing.
4. Select the "Remote Mail Exchanger" option.
5. Click the Change button.
6. Paste the following combinations of Priorities and Destinations and add each one: (Be sure to remove the ending dot of each Destination so that cPanel will accept it.)
   • Priority: 1 Destination: ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
   • Priority: 5 Destination: ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
   • Priority: 5 Destination: ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
   • Priority: 10 Destination: ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM
   • Priority: 10 Destination: ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM
7. Finally, delete the original MX record with Priority: 0 and Destination: yourdomain.com.

All done?

Be sure to go back to the Google Apps page and click the "I have completed these steps" button.

Accessing Webmail

Go back to the Google Apps Dashboard and click the Email link.

Next to Web address you see a sign-in address (URL) which is similar to http://mail.google.com/a/yourdomain.com .

The login is the email name WITHOUT @yourdomain.com and the temporary password given by Google. You can find the temporary password by going to the "Users and Groups" tab at the top. Click the email account in question, and the password will be revealed.

Here is a guide to help you through your first few days using Google Apps: Your First Days