With a “.ie” your options are reasonably broad though in most cases, DNS hosting of that domain only comes as part of a hosting package (if you want to host your own DNS, enjoy!). In the end I went with Blacknight, and the experience so far, particularly with their technical support has been very good. In common with nearly all hosting companies, they offer you an assorted bag of hosting, databases, application frameworks, and email. In common with most hosting companies, the email application is… crap. Indeed, one major hosting company, Dreamhost, has stopped providing it altogether.

I wanted a little more… like pervasive, reliable, easy to use web interface, access through my desktop clients, mobile access, and perhaps some other bells and whistles you get used to when using email in a corporate environment. Like a calendar, contacts, meeting requests, instant messaging!

Short of getting my own Microsoft Exchange server (which some people have done), there are few enough options out there for the general public. Microsoft try, in a disjointed fashion, with Windows Live Mail and the Outlook connector (where, oh where is calendar syncing?). I won’t go into the hassle I had with creating a “yahoo.ie” address, but they still lag with nothing but POP3 access on the desktop. Google has the most complete offering, with their Google Apps For Domains, offering Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Sites, with IMAP access for Outlook, and the Mobil GMAIL app. There is still a “hung together” feel to it all, but if you want a more effective email solution for your own domain, short of getting your own exchange server, it is the best choice.

Registering for Google Apps For Domains is simple and free. If you have your own domain (with Blacknight for example…), Google will require you prove your ownership. Typically this is done by creating a CNAME (an alias for a server name in DNS) with a google supplied name (I could not do this with my Blacknight hosting), or by creating a page on your website with a Google supplied name (which was the route I took).  Once verified, you then need to instruct your hosting company to setup CNAME’s and other DNS records to point certain services at Google. You can use the following as a model:

To Whom It May Concern:

Please setup the following DNS records for my domain(s): foo.ie, foo.com:

foo.ie IN MX 1 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
foo.ie IN MX 5 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
foo.ie IN MX 5 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
foo.ie IN MX 10 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
foo.ie IN MX 10 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.

foo.com IN MX 1 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
foo.com IN MX 5 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
foo.com IN MX 5 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
foo.com IN MX 10 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
foo.com IN MX 10 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.

mail.foo.ie. CNAME IN 3600 ghs.google.com
mail.foo.com. CNAME IN 3600 ghs.google.com
docs.foo.ie. CNAME IN 3600 ghs.google.com
docs.foo.com. CNAME IN 3600 ghs.google.com
sites.foo.ie. CNAME IN 3600 ghs.google.com
sites.foo.com. CNAME IN 3600 ghs.google.com
start.foo.ie. CNAME IN 3600 ghs.google.com
start.foo.com. CNAME IN 3600 ghs.google.com
calendar.foo.ie. CNAME IN 3600 ghs.google.com
calendar.foo.com. CNAME IN 3600 ghs.google.com

_xmpp-server._tcp.foo.ie. IN SRV 5 0 5269 xmpp-server.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.foo.ie. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server1.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.foo.ie. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server2.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.foo.ie. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server3.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.foo.ie. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server4.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.foo.ie. IN SRV 5 0 5269 xmpp-server.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.foo.ie. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server1.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.foo.ie. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server2.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.foo.ie. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server3.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.foo.ie. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server4.l.google.com.

_xmpp-server._tcp.foo.com. IN SRV 5 0 5269 xmpp-server.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.foo.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server1.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.foo.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server2.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.foo.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server3.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.foo.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server4.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.foo.com. IN SRV 5 0 5269 xmpp-server.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.foo.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server1.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.foo.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server2.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.foo.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server3.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.foo.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server4.l.google.com.

Regards,

This should cover your new foo.ie or foo.com domain for all of Googles services. Bear in mind that it could take up to 24 hours for it all to propogate around the internet. Once the addresses are in DNS, go back to Google Apps and follow the instructions in this note to implement friendly URLS for your services. All that is left is to setup IMAP in Outlook. This tutorial from www.howtogeek.com is about the best one out there.

Next… Wordpress!