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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 will 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 100 e-mail accounts. You can also 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=

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

If you already have a Google Apps account, you know how to log in. (This is not the same as your regular Gmail or Webmaster Tools account.)

If you don't, go to http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html.

Read the descriptions and choose your Edition. You will likely only need the free Standard Edition.

The following instructions are for the Standard Edition.

1. Type your domain name into the text field under "I already have a domain."

   

2. Enter the...

   • number of users.
   • Administrator information (you, or someone else you want to administer this system).
   • Organization information. Select No for "Does your organization currently provide email accounts?"

   Add a check 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 on Continue when finished.

3. 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."
4. Read the Terms and Conditions, then click on I accept. Continue with set up to accept the Terms and continue the process.

That brings you to the Dashboard page, where you can add user accounts, set up other Google services, and verify ownership of your site.

Verifying Site Ownership

Next, you need to verify ownership of your site. This is the same process you used if you verified ownership of your site for Google Webmaster Tools. Unfortunately, you can't use that verification file. You'll have to upload another file. 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 link that says Verify domain ownership (top right of page).

   
2. On the next page, click on the Choose verification method... drop down menu. Select "Upload an HTML file." The page will refresh with the information you need to verify ownership of your site.

3. Select the HTML code below by clicking on the Highlight All button. Then copy it (Ctrl+C -- Command+C on a Mac).

   Verification Page Code
   
   

   <html> <head> <title>Verification</title> <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"> </head> <body> Replace this text with the text provided by Google </body> </html>

Directions for Use


• Highlight and copy the HTML code just above.
• Open a text editor (NotePad, TextEdit) and paste in the code.
• On the Google page, copy the file name provided by Google.
• Save the text file, pasting in the file name from the Google page.
• In Site Central, click on Upload Your Own HTML Page.
• Click on the Browse button (Choose File if using Safari) and select the saved file. Select No if you have RSS turned on. Click on Upload Your HTML.
• Ignore the error messages. Click Here to Continue to Step 3.
• Scroll down the page and click on Preview. If you see a white page with the Google text, close the window and click on Build It! to build the page. If not, edit the file and upload/build again.
• Return to the Google page and click on Verify.
4. Open your text editor (Notepad in Windows or TextEdit on a Mac) and paste in the source code you just copied. If you use TextEdit, ensure that you are in Plain Text mode first, not Rich Text.
5. Return to the Google Apps verification page and copy (Ctrl+C) the text that starts with "google" (ex., googleec8449511da81ed4). Back in your text editor, paste the text between the <body> and </body> tags.

6. Copy this verification file name -- googlehostedservice.html -- then return to the text document. Save it and name it by pasting in the verification file name. Save the file to your desktop.

   Important: Double-triple-quadruple-check that your file name is identical to what's above, or else Google will not be able to verify your site. Ensure you have included the ".html" extension, and have no spaces before or after the name.

7. Next, upload this page by using SBI!'s Upload Your Own HTML module. If you have only ever used the block-by-block SiteBuilder, don't worry -- this is super-easy. Follow the Directions for Use on the right.

   Very Important: Be sure to select No if you have activated RSS/Blog It! for your site. If you don't, the verification file will appear in your RSS feed and in your Blog It! page.

8. Preview the page. You should see a white page with the Google text. If you see that, build the page.

9. Back on the Google Apps page, click on the link to your verification file to check it. If you see the same white page with the Google text, click on the Verify button to verify your URL.

   Google will present a message that verification will take 24-48 hours.

   • If you do not see the white page, or receive a "No Such URL" message, then the file name is incorrect. Return to your document and rename it. Then upload it again and check it in Google Apps.
   • If you see a white page, but it says "Replace this text with the text provided by Google," you did not replace the existing text with the text that Google provided. Return to the document and paste in the Google text. Save the document, upload it, and check it in Google Apps.
   • When all is well, click on Verify.

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. In the "Service Settings" section of the Google Apps Dashboard page, click on Activate email under "Email."

   
Directions for Use


• On the Dashboard page, click on the Activate email link under "Email."
• In the "MX Server address" list, highlight and copy all the text in the first row. Include the trailing dot (period).
• Paste it 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 it into the second text field in MX It!, beside "Secondary Mail Exchange."
• Click on Save MX Record to save the changes.
• In Google Apps, click on the I've completed these steps button.

3. On the next page, scroll down to the MX Server address list. 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.

   Note: If you can't find the MX Server Address list, it may be hidden in a drop down menu. Select any of the other companies from the menu. Once the information for that company displays, select "Any other company" from the drop down menu. That will display the generic MX Server Address list information.

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've 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 SVBI!, 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.

https://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=33384&topic=10743 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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