If you have ever switched ISP and then lost your email address as a result you will know how useful it is to have your own domain. Having an email address on your own domain will enable you to keep your same email address when switching ISP’s
You may also know that hosting a domain on a web server can get expensive with regular monthly payments and so on. This has now changed thanks to the clever guys from Google who have recently launched Google Apps.
This ingenious idea by the guys from Google allows you to host your own email on their servers with a very generous 6 gigabytes of email storage and all the extra features that gmail offers such as one of the best spam detection systems available today.
Does all this sound appealing? Are you now wondering how you can host your own domain on google’s servers? Well the answer is here and I have compiled a how to so that you too can enjoy the benefits of Gmail with the personal identity of your own domain.
Getting Started
First off we need to point our MX records to the Google servers. Each domain provider has different control panels so these steps may vary slightly. You will need the following MX records with the priorities listed.
ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. (MX Priority 1)
ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. (MX Priority 5)
ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. (MX Priority 5)
ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. (MX Priority 10)
ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. (MX Priority 10)
Ok now we have made these changes it can take some time for your DNS settings to update 24/48 hours is the norm. No need to panic as in the meantime we can get on with registering our Google Apps account.
Creating the account
As we are wanting something for nothing we are going to use the “Standard Edition” of the Google Apps service. Navigate to http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/editions_spe.html and once on the page select the “Standard Edition” by clicking on the button labeled “Sign Up” under the column “Standard Edition”
Now you will be prompted to enter the domain you wish to use for your Google Apps account. Once you have entered the domain click the “Get Started” button. Now proceed to enter your personal details such as contact details, organisation details (if applicable) and so on. Once done click the “Continue” button to go to the next step.
Finally you will be asked to create the domain administrator account, you will be required to select an alias for your domain administrator account. Once you have done this you will see a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen. Read through this disclaimer and if you accept the terms and conditions click the “I accept” button.
Your account is now created but the process does not finish there. You now need to verify you are the owner of the domain you have selected. Go ahead and click the link towards the top of the page labeled “Verify Domain Ownership”
The only option you really have is to verify your domain via CNAME as i am assuming you have no web space to upload a html file. So go ahead and select “Change Your CNAME Record” from the drop down list. You will now need to go to your domain providers website and create a CNAME record with the details that are shown on this page.
After approximately 24/48 hours your domain should be verified and now you should be able to use your shiny new Gmail account with your own domain. To try it out navigate to http://mail.google.com/a/YOUR_DOMAIN obviously you will need to replace YOUR_DOMAIN with the domain you signed up using.
Congratulations you have just created a Gmail account using your own domain name. Send a test email to your self just to check things are working. If things are not working how they should go ahead and read through the FAQ as there is plenty of useful information that should be able to help you out.
Enjoy your new Gmail account 
Tags: google mail own domain free email hosting gmail apps im
Thanks for post. Friends send me a link. It’s very interesting. Subscribed on RSS! Will come soon!