There are some other minor benefits, but I think that covers the main list. <\/p>\n
Requirements<\/h2>\n
In order to set all of this up, I needed the following: <\/p>\n
- \n
- A registered domain name\n
- An ISP to host the domain (~$4.00\/month) and to provide POP3 access\n
- A GMail account (free)\n
- (optional) Microsoft Outlook (or any other e-mail client)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
The costs are really minimal, especially if you go with a discount web host and if you’re already using Outlook or another e-mail client. <\/p>\n
Configuration<\/h2>\n
Now, let’s look at the technical details. If you’re unfamiliar with standards and protocols such as POP3 and SMTP, you’ll probably need to do some research before setting this up. Otherwise, it should be fairly straight-forward. <\/p>\n
So, the way inbound <\/strong>mail works is as follows: <\/p>\n
<\/a> <\/p>\n
- \n
- The DNS MX record for my domain points to my ISP’s POP3 account, and all new mail is received there.\n
- All inbound messages from my ISP are set to redirect to my GMail account.\n
- GMail is configured to allow POP3 access and to automatically archive messages that are downloaded\n
- Outlook is configured to use POP3 to download messages from GMail. Once messages are downloaded, they’re automatically archived on the GMail server.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Outbound <\/strong>mail works like this: I set the Reply To address to my custom domain e-mail address and then send messages to GMail as my outbound SMTP server. The benefit here is that all outbound messages are cached by GMail (so I can search them later or access them online). <\/p>\n
A Little Quirk<\/h2>\n
There’s one minor issue with this configuration: When Outlook users see me messages, they look something like “Anil@domain.com on behalf of Anil@ISPAccount.com<\/em>“. All operations such as replying works just fine, but some people seem to be confused by it. Other than that, I haven’t had any problems with the setup. <\/p>\n
The Add-Ons<\/h2>\n
You can download and install the GMail Notifier<\/a> or the Google Desktop<\/a> to automatically receive notifications and\/or previews of new messages as they arrive. <\/p>\n
Customization Options<\/h2>\n
The same setup can certainly be created in a variety of different ways. For example, you can use a web-based server other than GMail, and you’re certainly not tied to Microsoft Outlook in any way. Overall, the approach should work fine for most people. <\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Overall, this e-mail setup works well for me. It also costs a total of ~$4.00\/month (a fee that I could probably eliminate by finding a free web host). And, I get the benefits of web-based messaging (simplified access and online storage), with the convenience of using Microsoft Outlook. Was this helpful? Does it make sense? Should I add more detail? Post a comment!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Almost two years ago, I switched from using my ISP-provided e-mail account to using GMail as my primary mail account. I also decided that I never wanted to go through the pain of switching accounts again, so I also decided to get my own domain name. I’m really happy with this setup, and I thought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-virtualization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}