Best way to go about setting up Gmail with main domain

Before I attempt this, I was just curious what the best method for doing this is.

I currently have my maindomain.com, it is being used for two servers…my main business server (no clients) as well as a shared client server (hq.maindomain.com and shared1.maindomain.com hostnames respectively).

I still want my servers to handle the mail, so I need to have them reroute the mail just for maindomain.com to the gmail servers.

My question is, since all of the domains on the shared server also use mail.maindomain.com or shared1.maindomain.com as valid MX records…would changing the MX record at the siteworx level for maindomain.com to route email to google work while still allowing all other domains to process email correctly?

Hopefully that makes sense.

Right now email is routed to my servers (which I will hopefully be switching to use Mandrill as soon as I get around to it).

Current route:
maindomain.com - direct to hq.maindomain.com
clientdomains.com - direct to shared.maindomain.com

Desired:
maindomain.com - direct to hq.maindomain.com then routed to google
clientdomains.com - direct to shared.maindomain.com

I just don’t want MX record changes to maindomain.com to have an affect on the shared server since it is using the same top level domain for it’s mailserver. Is this possible, or am I going to need to just whitelabel all my shared servers with a new mailserver domain?

Hi staxed

Sorry, that sounds confusing.

You could just white label your mx, or allow each domain to use their own domain mx as in mail.eachdomain.url, which just points to same email server I’m guessing, without knowing your setup sorry.

Or, you could put a smarthost on your domain only for email, leaving your mx intact, but this would just be for outgoing, which should be fine if I have understood your post correctly. Apologies in advance if I have not.

I hope that helps a little

Many thanks

John

[QUOTE=d2d4j;26132]Hi staxed

Sorry, that sounds confusing.

You could just white label your mx, or allow each domain to use their own domain mx as in mail.eachdomain.url, which just points to same email server I’m guessing, without knowing your setup sorry.

Or, you could put a smarthost on your domain only for email, leaving your mx intact, but this would just be for outgoing, which should be fine if I have understood your post correctly. Apologies in advance if I have not.

I hope that helps a little

Many thanks

John[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I was a little confusing, I think I might be overthinking things.

My mail system is currently just set to Interworx defaults, so all of the domains can use mail.eachdomain.url…however I don’t advertise that because this causes certificate errors when using secure connection methods since the server uses a signed certificate that doesn’t match each domain.

in order for gmail apps for business to work correctly, it needs to have both incoming and outgoing, not just outgoing. Just trying to figure out the best way of handling it without having to worry about messing up all of my shared clients emails.

It’s probably going to be a bit more work…but I think I might just go ahead and get a whitelabeled domain for all of my servers to completely alleviate the issue. I’ve been wanting to move the shared clients to a new server anyway…so maybe it’s time.

Hi staxed

Many thanks, less confusing now I understand a little better.

I would think this is the better option as follows

Leave your current mx A record as is (this is the email server address you use for clients to connect)

Change your current MX record to gmail

This then should work fine as long as you do not change the A record used for your clients, and as long as each of your clients MX record is set to their domain MX and you only use your domain A record to allow clients to connect to your email server

Sorry, now I’m sounding confusing but I understand what I’m trying to say sorry

Many thanks

John

[QUOTE=d2d4j;26134]Hi staxed

Many thanks, less confusing now I understand a little better.

I would think this is the better option as follows

Leave your current mx A record as is (this is the email server address you use for clients to connect)

Change your current MX record to gmail

This then should work fine as long as you do not change the A record used for your clients, and as long as each of your clients MX record is set to their domain MX and you only use your domain A record to allow clients to connect to your email server

Sorry, now I’m sounding confusing but I understand what I’m trying to say sorry

Many thanks

John[/QUOTE]

So just leave the server settings themselves as is, and simply change the MX record for maindomain.com at the siteworx level?

Hi staxed

Yes that’s correct.

The clients email settings on their computers, ie outlook etc for server address, looks up the A record. It is only email servers sending email which lookup the MX record.

I hope that helps a little

Many thanks

John

Hi

Sorry, incase anyone jumps in, modern email clients when setting up email accounts, such as outlook, do try to auto configure on the domain, but this would give them their domain MX, but as you manually inform them of your server address to use for email client settings, this is overcome and all works lovely.

I hope that explains it a little more

Many thanks

John