![\"trustyetcgoogled.png\"](\"http:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/trustyetcgoogled.png\")
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A couple of weeks ago, my mail server started making one of those “it won’t be long now” sort of sounds.\u00a0 It was the kind of\u00a0noise you hear an eight year-old computer make just before everything goes dark.<\/p>\n
I have toyed with the idea of turning everything over to Google, and this seemed as good a time as any.\u00a0 I went to Google Apps<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.google.com\/apps<\/a><\/p>\n and signed up.\u00a0 The first thing Google did was send an email to me ensuring I could receive email at TRUSTYETC.COM.\u00a0 Once I confirmed that email, I moved on to creating an MX record so that all my email would be redirected to GMail instead of the dying machine at my house.\u00a0 To do this, you will need access to your domain’s DNS settings.\u00a0 Because I own my own domain, I have this access.<\/p>\n That was all it took.\u00a0 Just that quickly and easily, Google became the home for all my email.<\/p>\n Google can do this for any organization, no matter the size.\u00a0 I selected the free, non-educational version of Google Apps.\u00a0 That permits me to create 100 email accounts each with 6 GB of storage.\u00a0 That’s right, they give me a total of 600 GB (0.6 TB) of space for free.\u00a0 Before I shutdown my old server, I exported all the username information.\u00a0 Google Apps imported those so I had no downtime for any of the email accounts.<\/p>\n Email works just as before with POP, IMAP\u00a0and the GMail web interface.<\/p>\n Here’s where it gets cool.\u00a0 Members of my domain (which is mostly family) can now easily share email, calendars and docs using Google’s online tools.\u00a0 We can also create custom start pages and regular web pages.<\/p>\n http:\/\/start.trustyetc.com<\/a><\/p>\n is now the start page for my domain.\u00a0 I can create as many of these as I need, with any domain prefix in the URL.<\/p>\n I have been using this service for a few weeks and I really like it.\u00a0 The only missing piece is Picasa.\u00a0\u00a0The online picture storage system does not\u00a0tie into the Google Apps suite yet.\u00a0 That has to be one of the\u00a0features on the drawing board.\u00a0 When Google adds Picasa and some sort of G-Drive, my family will be completely in the cloud.\u00a0 That will be cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A couple of weeks ago, my mail server started making one of those “it won’t be long now” sort of sounds.\u00a0 It was the kind of\u00a0noise you hear an eight year-old computer make just before everything goes dark. I have … Continue reading