Domain email forwarding

Gavin Scott · Tue 28 Jun, 2011 09.50

Hi chaps

Seeking quick advice - although I think I've got a handle on this.

A pal has purchased a .co.uk domain from UK2 and would like to be able to send and receive emails (pretty urgently) for a new business venture.

My feeling is that, for now - with the lack of server/exchange infrastructure, that he ties this to a gmail account.

Are there additional cost implications to this, and can anyone explain the process as you understand it?

Just want to ensure I'm not overlooking something obvious...

Sput · Tue 28 Jun, 2011 10.39

Well, UK2 were shits for doing it all via redirecting unless you pay extra (I got a .co.uk back in the day) and looking at the site that hasn't really changed. They do claim to offer a POP3 account and email forwarding, so it looks like *receiving* emails addressed to [email protected] should be no problem, but sending them will be a lot less convincing since they'd just be coming from his gmail. Looks like the web hosting package at £3 a month would cover what he wants.

By the way, if he's not paying for anything other than the domain name with "webdiversion" (ie no hosting), where is he hosting his site for the .co.uk to divert to?

Gavin Scott · Tue 28 Jun, 2011 11.26

Sput wrote:Well, UK2 were shits for doing it all via redirecting unless you pay extra (I got a .co.uk back in the day) and looking at the site that hasn't really changed. They do claim to offer a POP3 account and email forwarding, so it looks like *receiving* emails addressed to [email protected] should be no problem, but sending them will be a lot less convincing since they'd just be coming from his gmail. Looks like the web hosting package at £3 a month would cover what he wants.

By the way, if he's not paying for anything other than the domain name with "webdiversion" (ie no hosting), where is he hosting his site for the .co.uk to divert to?

Initially he needs to be able to receive email based on new stationery being sent out. Send and receive.

He'll be getting a website, but as he's a one man band and doesn't want a lot of capital expenditure, I'm recommending he looks at office 365 (currently in beta) which, for a nominal monthly subscription, will give him cloud access to the office suite, and should also handle a "hosted exchange" facility for domain emails to come through.

If I wanted to use gmail as a temporary alternative, does that require additional monies?

scottishtv · Tue 28 Jun, 2011 11.59

If UK2 lets him access MX records on his domain, then he can use Google Apps for Business (free) which is relatively quick to set up, gives him GMail interface, Calendar Docs and all the associated stuff but hosted on his domain so no need for email forwarding and replying "on behalf of" and all that stuff.

The free version allows up to 10 users on your domain, and might be an adequate long term, no-cost solution too. I use it personally (having used a hosted Exchange account in the past) and find it really pretty good.

Inspector Sands · Tue 28 Jun, 2011 12.21

Sput wrote:Well, UK2 were shits for doing it all via redirecting unless you pay extra (I got a .co.uk back in the day) and looking at the site that hasn't really changed. They do claim to offer a POP3 account and email forwarding, so it looks like *receiving* emails addressed to [email protected] should be no problem, but sending them will be a lot less convincing since they'd just be coming from his gmail.

Gmail allows you to 'send mail as' another address.

So mail is sent to [email protected] and goes to a gmail inbox but then when a mail is sent from the gmail account it appears to have been sent from [email protected]

Gavin Scott · Tue 28 Jun, 2011 12.34

scottishtv wrote:If UK2 lets him access MX records on his domain, then he can use Google Apps for Business (free) which is relatively quick to set up, gives him GMail interface, Calendar Docs and all the associated stuff but hosted on his domain so no need for email forwarding and replying "on behalf of" and all that stuff.

The free version allows up to 10 users on your domain, and might be an adequate long term, no-cost solution too. I use it personally (having used a hosted Exchange account in the past) and find it really pretty good.

This is what I was thinking of.

UK2 should give the MX records, shouldn't they?

scottishtv · Tue 28 Jun, 2011 12.40

Inspector Sands wrote:So mail is sent to [email protected] and goes to a gmail inbox but then when a mail is sent from the gmail account it appears to have been sent from [email protected]

But when it arrives at the other end (certainly in Outlook 2007 anyway), the From address in the email shows as '[email protected]' on behalf of '[email protected]' - which makes whoever appear cheap and confuses the recipient. Well, slightly irritates the recipient. Ok, irritates me.

scottishtv · Tue 28 Jun, 2011 12.50

Gavin Scott wrote:UK2 should give the MX records, shouldn't they?

I would hope so. I slightly glossed over the fact he will have to add a TXT record to his DNS to verify he owns the domain, as well as a the MX record to point to the GMail servers.

He would also have to do this for Office 365 to work if he chose that instead, so will need to be able to edit the records.

If he can't from within whatever UK2's control panel offers then, he can use a free 3rd party site like ZoneEdit (http://www.zoneedit.com/) but that does start to complicate things a bit but still lets him get around having to pay more to his host or anyone else.

Sput · Tue 28 Jun, 2011 12.55

scottishtv wrote:
Gavin Scott wrote:UK2 should give the MX records, shouldn't they?
I would hope so. I slightly glossed over the fact he will have to add a TXT record to his DNS to verify he owns the domain, as well as a the MX record to point to the GMail servers.

He would also have to do this for Office 365 to work if he chose that instead, so will need to be able to edit the records.

If he can't from within whatever UK2's control panel offers then, he can use a free 3rd party site like ZoneEdit (http://www.zoneedit.com/) but that does start to complicate things a bit but still lets him get around having to pay more to his host or anyone else.

I wasn't able to do this back when I had a UK2 domain, but it was about 10 years ago. You had to subscribe to an additional service.

Gavin Scott · Tue 28 Jun, 2011 13.23

Spoke to UK2 (on their 50p/minutes line, yeesh), and they said he would need to purchase domain management tools for £17 per domain per year, but this will give him access to DNS and MX records.

Seems ok really.

WillPS · Tue 28 Jun, 2011 17.17

Gavin Scott wrote:Spoke to UK2 (on their 50p/minutes line, yeesh), and they said he would need to purchase domain management tools for £17 per domain per year, but this will give him access to DNS and MX records.

Seems ok really.

Good god that's a rip-off! Namecheap (who I've used since ever and highly recommend) charge nothing except the domain registration.

I'd always thought such features were 'standard'.