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MX It!

MX It! is a simple tool that lets you select the best system for handling your e-mail needs. For more information and help deciding on the system for you, see Choosing the Best E-mail System for Your Needs.

MX It! allows you to send your mail to a third-party resource, such as Google Apps' Gmail, where you can create e-mail accounts with separate logins and assign them to your employees.

Google Apps provides many useful tools, the most valuable of which is the ability to receive and send e-mail from your domain through the Gmail interface ("Google Apps' Gmail").

You can also use Google Apps' Gmail as a solo entrepreneur. Instead of creating multiple accounts, create just an administrator account and assign it as a catch-all address. Warning: You may receive a lot of spam if you use a catch-all, as all mail to "info@" or "sales@," etc., will land in your inbox or your spam folder. The good news is that Gmail's spam filter will place most of it into your Spam folder.

If you're a Webmaster who builds SBI! sites for clients, some of them may need multiple individual e-mail accounts. You can now offer them that functionality through MX It! and Google Apps' Gmail (or other third-party resources that accept MX changes, such as Pobox.com).

Once you change your MX record in MX It!, all mail will then go directly to your Google Apps' Gmail account(s), completely bypassing SBI!'s WebMail and SVBI!. All outgoing mail is sent through Gmail, but from your domain name. For example, if the owner of anguilla-beaches.com sets her MX record to Google Apps' Gmail, she (and any employees) would then send and receive all mail through Gmail, but it would come in and go out as @anguilla-beaches.com.

Google Apps' Gmail is the most popular system available. The Standard Edition is free, and allows you to create up to 50 e-mail accounts.

You can set it up to send and receive mail from your desktop mail application. To learn more about this feature, and to see how Google Apps' Gmail differs from Gmail, see Google's help...

https://www.google.com:443/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=33380&query=smtp&topic=&type=

If you have more than one account with Google Apps (you're using it to send and receive e-mail for more than one site), there's a Firefox addon that lets you manage all of the accounts from one location...

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/integrated-gmail/

The following instructions will walk you through basic Google Apps setup, site verification, and MX record changes. Setting up your account and verifying ownership are one-time-only processes.

If you feel a little overwhelmed after reading the instructions, don't be. An SBI! Coach can set up everything for you, while you concentrate on growing your business.

Setting Up Your Google Apps Account

Go to http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html.

The following instructions are for the Standard Edition.

1. Click the button beside "Administrator: I own or control this domain."
2. Type your domain name into the text field under "Enter your domain name."
3. Click on Get Started.

4. On the next page, enter...

   • Your account administrator information (you, or someone else you want to administer this system). Add a check beside the "I understand..." statement.
   • Organization information is optional.
5. Click on Continue.
6. On the next page, enter Your Administrator Account information. The username you enter does not have to be an existing SBI! WebMail account. You can create a new one here. For example, if you are going to be the primary user, you may want to use your first name, followed by "admin." This would give you an account "nameadmin@your-domain-name.com."
7. Add a password for the account.
8. Type the characters that you see into the text box.
9. Read the Terms and Conditions.
10. Optional: uncheck the box if you do not want new features to be added automatically to your Google Apps account.
11. Click on I accept. Continue with set up to accept the Terms and continue the setup.

That brings you to an introduction page, where you'll have to verify ownership of your site.

Verifying Site Ownership

Next, you need to verify ownership of your site. The steps are below.

Important: You must verify your site ownership if you want to send and receive mail from Google Apps.

1. Click on the Verify domain ownership link in the left navigation column. Then click the Next >> button in the content area.
2. Click the button beside Upload an HTML file to your server.
3. Download the file that Google Apps provides. It starts with "google" and ends with a text string, then ".html" (you'll see the file name in gray text in square brackets).
4. Go to Verify It! in Site Central and upload the file, following the instructions provided there.
5. Return to Google Apps and click on Verify to complete the verification process.

Changing the MX Record

It's now time to change the MX record, so that all mail to your e-mail accounts will go to your Google Apps' Gmail accounts instead of SBI! WebMail.

MX It! simplifies the Google Apps process with the steps below. You can ignore the information and steps provided by Google.

1. If you are not currently on the MX It! tool page, return there now, through a second browser window for Site Central. You will be pasting Google's MX Server information into the MX It! text fields. Keep your Google window open...

2. You should be on the Google Apps Dashboard page. Click on the Email link under Services Settings.

   

   You can also click on Settings in the blue bar at the top, then select Email from the left column.

Directions for Use


• On the Dashboard or Service Settings page, click on the Email link.
• In the "Email activation" section, click on Instructions on how to activate Email. On the next page, click on Change MX records.
• In the "MX Server address" list, highlight and copy all the text in the first row. Include the trailing dot (period).
• Paste the text into the first text field in MX It!, beside "Primary Mail Exchange."
• Back in the Google Apps page, highlight and copy all the text in the second row, in the "MX Server address" list. Include the trailing dot (period).
• Paste the text into the second text field in MX It!, beside "Secondary Mail Exchange."
• Click on Save MX Record in MX It! to save the changes.
• In Google Apps, click on the I have completed these steps button.

3. On the next page, in the "Email activation" section, click on Instructions on how to activate Email. Then click on Change MX records. Highlight and copy the MX Server address in the first row of the list. It will look something like this...

   

   Very Important: Ensure that you include the trailing dot (period), and that you do not pick up any spaces before or after the text. Ignore the priority.

4. In MX It!, paste the copied text into the text field beside "Primary Mail Exchange."

   

5. Back on the Google page, highlight and copy the MX Server address information in the second row of the list. It will look something like this... ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.

   Very Important: Ensure that you include the trailing dot (period), and that you do not pick up any spaces before or after the text. Ignore the priority.

6. In MX It!, paste the copied text into the text field beside "Secondary Mail Exchange."
7. Click on Save MX Record to save the changes in MX It!.
8. Back in Google Apps, click on the I have completed these steps button to have Google check the changes.

Important Notes

• It will take anywhere from 24-48 hours before you begin receiving mail through Google Apps' Gmail. During this time, you may receive some through SBI!, others through Google. So check both for a few days.
• You can start sending mail as soon as your ownership is verified, but any replies will likely land in your SBI! WebMail until the switch is completed.

Setting Up E-mail Accounts

Once you've verified your site ownership and changed the MX record in MX It!, it's time to create your employees' accounts.

Business User With Employees

Click here if you don't have employees but want to use Google Apps for your e-mail.

Let's get going at Google...

1. In Google Apps, go to the Dashboard and click on Create new user. Enter the person's name, and enter the account name into the Username text field. This might be an existing account name from Spam 'n Virus Blast It!, or a new one that you've never used before.
2. Enter a password, and confirm it.
3. Click on Create new user to complete the process for each person.
4. On the completion page, click on Create another user to repeat the process.

When you've created all employee accounts, assign a catch-all address to one of them. This ensures that you receive mail from any accounts that you previously set up in SBI! Mail (ones that do not need to be separate accounts as outlined above). It also ensures that you receive mail from any accounts that SBI! creates automatically (ex., MailOut Manager messages, Form Build It! (FBI!) notifications, or Content 2.0 (C2) submission or comment notifications, etc.).

This is very important. If you do not set up the catch-all address, you will not be notified of important communications to your site, such as a Content 2.0 submission or comment.

Catch-all Warning: SVBI! filters out all spam to SBI! WebMail, including mail to accounts that do not exist, like "info@" and "sales@." It takes more time upfront to set up, but it's 100% foolproof if managed properly. There is no "catch-all" account, since SVBI! knows to let all Form Build It! and Content 2.0 mail through. However, you do need a catch-all account at Google Apps' Gmail to catch all this kind of mail...

At Google Apps' Gmail, most of the junk mail to your catch-all account (and there is a lot of it) lands in your Spam folder, while the good mail (including FBI!, C2, etc.) gets to your Inbox.

But some spam will land in your Inbox, however, so you'll have some extra e-mail management duties. And you may have to check your Spam folder to see if any good mail accidentally lands in the Spam folder.

Tips

• If you decide later to assign someone else to manage catch-all e-mail, repeat the above process. Enter the account name for the new person in the catch-all account text field, and save the change. That employee will receive all future e-mail that does not have its own account.
• If the person assigned to handle catch-all e-mail is sick or goes on vacation, log in to the dashboard (as the administrator) and assign the catch-all to another employee.

• When logging in to your mail accounts, be sure to use this URL...

  http://mail.google.com/a/yourdomainname.com

Solo Business User With No Employees

Click here if you have employees AND want to use Google Apps for your e-mail.

If you're a solo entrepreneur who prefers the flexibility of Google Apps' Gmail, you can set up multiple accounts if you want. But that means logging into each account, checking mail, then logging out. A simpler process would be to assign a catch-all address to receive all the mail. That can be your administrator account, or a second account that you set up for yourself.

To assign your catch-all, follow the Directions for Use above.

Catch-all Warning: see the warning above.

Once you have all the accounts set up, you may want to arrange to have their mail forwarded to a desktop mail application, such as Outlook, Outlook Express or Apple Mail. The following two help files are both necessary to set up forwarding...

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=%67mail&hl=en&answer=12103 for general Gmail instructions.

http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=105694 for instructions specific to Google Apps.

Switching to Another Resource or Reverting to SBI!'s WebMail

If you decide at a later date that you want to switch to another third-party resource (such as Pobox.com's paid service), follow that resource's instructions. Paste the new MX Record information into MX It! and save the information.

If you decide later that you want to revert to SBI!'s WebMail, remove all information from MX It! (both text fields should be empty) and click on Save MX Record. Within 48 hours, all e-mail will be delivered to WebMail.

Important: If you created accounts in Google Apps that were not originally in your WebMail, you will have to add them using SVBI!. If you don't, that mail may not be delivered once WebMail begins to receive your mail again.

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