I mapped a domain today and configured email for that domain. I feel brilliant! It is a new step in Geekdom for me. I’m so proud.

I did not, however, accomplish this feat by myself. I had help from a slew of forum posts, Help entries, web articles, guesses of my own, and dumb luck. (See my Resources & References post.)

I am attempting to streamline the process for anyone else who might attempt it, by creating the following HOW-TOs. These how-to entries work for domains purchased through GoDaddy.com (using GoDaddy as the registrar), hosted on blogger/blogspot, email through Google Apps, and then using Thunderbird as an email app. If you’re using other applications and registrars and hosts, then YMMV (your mileage may vary).

• How To Map Your Custom Domain, Step 1: Configuring GoDaddy (CNAME Records)
• How To Map Your Custom Domain, Step 2: Configuring Blogger (Publishing settings)
• How To Configure Your Custom Domain Email, Step 1: Signing Up for Google Apps
• How To Configure Your Custom Domain Email, Step 2: Running an NSLookup
• How To Configure Your Custom Domain Email, Step 3: MX Records
  • Method 1: Automatic
  • Method 2: Manual
• How To Configure Your Custom Domain Email, Step 4: Thunderbird

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Note: This how-to assumes you already registered a domain through GoDaddy.com. If you have not registered a domain, you’ll need to do so before proceeding.

1. Log into your account at GoDaddy.
2. Under “My Products” in the left-hand menu, select Domain Manager.
3. Click the name of the domain you want to map.
4. Click the “Total DNS Control and MX Records” link at the bottom of the section entitled “Total DNS.”
5. Expand the CNAMES (Aliases) section (if it isn’t already) by clicking on its plus-sign.
6. Locate the entry that shows “www” as “Host.” Click the edit button (on the right-hand side, looks like a pencil drawing on a notepad).
7. For the Name, entier the subdomain of the address you want to use for your blog. For example, if you registered www.customdomain.com as your address, enter www for the name.
8. Enter ghs.google.com as the Host Name. Specify a TTL or use the default setting of 1 hour. (I used 1/2 hour.)
9. Click OK.
10. You should get a message box in the screen saying that your record changes were saved or processed.

Proceed to Configuring Blogger’s publishing settings.

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Have you configured your CNAME record at GoDaddy?

1. Log in to your blogger account.
2. Go to the “Settings” link for your blog.
3. Click on “Publishing” under the Settings tab.
4. Click on the “Custom Domain” link (probably in small print near the top)
5. Enter the name of your domain in the box provided. (The http:// will be filled in for you; you just need to add the rest, e.g., customdomain.com)
6. Make sure you SAVE your changes to the publishing tab by clicking on the Save button.

Proceed to Configuring your Custom Domain Email.

Labels: blogging, how-to, tips ‘n tricks

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Have you configured your CNAME records?

Have you configured blogger’s publishing settings?

1. Go to Google Apps.
2. Click on the blue box (on the right-hand side) that says “Compare Editions and Sign Up.”
3. Click on the “Sign Up” button under the Standard Edition package (it’s free).
4. If you’re the Administrator of the domain, click the Administrator radio button.
5. Enter your domain name in the box (e.g., www.customdomain.com)
6. Click Get Started.

The trickiest part of the set up is the Verification. You have to verify that you own the domain you say you own. I used the CNAME method (Google Apps also offers you the option to upload an html file; I didn’t do that).

Google Apps will tell you what CNAME entry to create. For example, google might tell you to make an entry with the Host Name googleffffffffexample3 and point it to google.com.

To do that:

1. Log into your account at GoDaddy.
2. Under “My Products” in the left-hand menu, select Domain Manager.
3. Click the name of the domain you want to map.
4. Click the “Total DNS Control and MX Records” link at the bottom of the section entitled “Total DNS.”
5. Expand the CNAMES (Aliases) section (if it isn’t already) by clicking on its plus-sign.
6. Click “Add CNAME Record.”
7. In the name box, enter the odd-looking string google assigned to you (e.g., googleffffffffexample3).
8. In the Point To box, enter google.com
9. Click OK. (You should get the box that confirms your action. Click OK.)
10. Proceed to Running an NSLookup.

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Have you configured your CNAME records?

Have you configured blogger’s publishing settings?

Have you signed up for Google Apps?

1. Wait a few minutes after making the change at GoDaddy.
2. Then go to Kloth.Net.
3. In the “Domain” box, enter the odd-looking string google gave you followed by your domain name (e.g., googleffffffffexample3.customdomain.com).
4. Leave the Server to whatever it defaults to (e.g., “localhost”).
5. Select “A (IP address)” for the Query.
6. Click “Look It Up.”

• What should happen is that a message will appear showing three IP addresses for google.com (along with some other text). If that happens, you’re good to go.
• If, however, you get a message saying that the server does not exist, you’re not done yet. You may just need to wait a few more minutes (it took about 20 minutes before my NSLookup came back with the right info). If you wait a while and the NSLookup is still saying no such server exists, then go back to your GoDaddy account, and double-check the CNAME entry (make extra positive that you entered the odd-looking string correctly).
• Once you get the message from the NSLookup showing the google.com IP addresses, then go back to your Google Apps page and click "Verify."
• The items on your Google Apps dashboard will show messages indicating that Google is verifying your information (which can take up to 48 hours). Once Google verifies your info and gets things set up on their end, the Dashboard icons will say "Active" next to them and will have green links under them.
• Your GoogleApps email requires that you activate it. Just click on the "Activate" link on the dashboard, and follow the steps (there aren’t many). Once you’ve done that, you’ll see a message on the dashboard under the email icon saying that Google is getting things set up for your email account and that it could take up to 48 hours. (Mine only took about an hour, though.)

Proceed to Configuring MX Records, Method 1 (Automatic) -or-
Proceed to Configuring MX Records, Method 2 (Manually)

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Have you configured your CNAME records?

Have you configured blogger’s publishing settings?

Have you signed up for Google Apps?

Have you run an NSLookup?

GoDaddy can automatically configure your MX records to work with Google Apps.

1. Go to GoDaddy’s MX Record wizard.
2. Enter your GoDaddy login information. Click Secure Login.
3. Enter the domain you’re updating (e.g., customdomain.com).
4. Click Confirm.
5. Enter your email (or Google Apps mail) information as it requests. It will update your MX Records for you.
6. If you look at your MX Records in GoDaddy, you’ll see that they are listed as pending. That’s normal. It may take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of days for them to move out of pending and be ready to go.

Check out MX Records Method 2, Manual Configuration -or-
Proceed to Configuring Thunderbird

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Have you configured your CNAME records?

Have you configured blogger’s publishing settings?

Have you signed up for Google Apps?

Have you run an NSLookup?

Would you prefer to have GoDaddy configure your MX Records automatically?

1. Log into your GoDaddy account.
2. Select Domain Manager from the left-hand menu.
3. Click the name of the domain you want to map.
4. Click the “Total DNS Control and MX Records” link at the bottom of the section entitled “Total DNS.”
5. Expand the MX (Mail Exchange) section (if it’s not already) by clicking on the plus-sign.
6. Delete ALL of the existing MX Records! (Click the X on the right-hand side under the “Actions” section.) It’s important you get rid of ALL of the existing MX Records.
7. After you’ve deleted all of the MX Records, click Add New MX Record.
8. You will enter a total of 5 MX Records. For the first one, select 10 in the Priority Value drop-down menu. In the Enter a Host Name box, enter @. In the “Enter Goes To Address” box, enter ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. (Make sure you include the period after com!). Enter a TTL value of 1 Hour. Click OK.
9. You’ll get a window comfirming that you’ve made a change.
10. Click OK and then click Add New MX Record again.
11. You’ll go through the same steps as before, but with different values, as shown below:
    For the second MX Record:
    • Priority Value 20
    • Host Name @
    • Goes To Address ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
    • TTL Value 1 hour
    Third MX Record:
    • Priority Value 30
    • Host Name @
    • Goes To Address ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
    • TTL Value 1 hour
    Fourth MX Record:
    • Priority Value 50
    • Host Name @
    • Goes To Address ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
    Fifth MX Record:
    • Priority Value 50
    • Host Name @
    • Goes To Address ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
    • TTL Value 1 hour
12. Note that the Total DNS Control and MX Records panel will show your MX Records as “pending.” That’s normal. It can take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of days for all of the internet gnomes to do their thing and get it working.
13. Proceed to Configuring Thunderbird.

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Have you configured your CNAME records?

Have you configured blogger’s publishing settings?

Have you signed up for Google Apps?

Have you run an NSLookup?

Have you configured your MX Records automatically or manually?

1. Log into your email account and enable POP. (In Gmail, click on "Settings" in the upper-right of your email page, then click on the POP and Forwarding tab, then click on the Enable Pop radio button.)
2. Remember to SAVE your settings!
3. Next, open Thunderbird.
4. Select Tools.
5. Select Account Settings.
6. Click "Add Account."
7. Click the "Email Account" radio button, and click Next.
8. Enter your name in the "Your Name" field.
9. Enter your email address (e.g., namehere@customdomain.com) in the Email Address field. Click Next.
10. Select POP as your Incoming Server. Enter pop.gmail.com in the Incoming Server field.
11. If you want Thunderbird to store your email for this account in a separate folder, make sure the "Use Global Inbox" is NOT checked. Click Next.
12. Enter your full email address (e.g., namehere@customdomain.com) in the Incoming User Name box.
13. Enter a name for this account. Click Next.
14. Click Finish.
15. In the Account Settings panel, select "Server Settings" under whatever you named your account.
16. At the top of the panel, change the Port (which defaults to 110) to 995.
17. Next on the panel, choose the SSL radio button under Security Settings.
18. Under Server Settings, make sure the boxes are checked for "Check for new messages at startup" and "Automatically download new messages."
19. In the list of accounts in the Account Settings Panel, select "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" to reveal the Outgoing Server settings panel.
20. Locate the listing for your new account, highlight it, and click Edit.
21. You might want to change its description from "smtp.gmail.com" to something more easily identifiable (e.g., Custom Domain).
22. Make sure the server name is smtp.gmail.com
23. Change the Port to 587.
24. Under Security and Authentication, check the box for "Use name and password" and then enter your username (e.g., namehere@customdomain.com).
25. Select the TLS (if available) radio button.
26. Click OK.
27. Exit the Account Settings panel.
28. Click on "Get Mail" and enter your password when the box pops up and prompts you to do so. (Allow the password manager to remember your password so you don’t have to enter it each time Thunderbird checks the server for new emails.)

Proceed to Resources & References.

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• Ask Marissa: How to send an email broadcast to an Autoresponder list in 1ShoppingCart
• How to edit & remove products in your Amazon aStore

Google Apps for Administrators Help Page

Compender

Blogger’s Custom Domain Help Page

Blogger Buster

Blogger for Dummies

Webgrrls Wisdom

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