- Moving web hosting from one web hosting service to another
- Reducing TTLs to minimize disruption during DNS changes
- Moving DNS registrars (but keeping your DNS servers where they were)
- Picking a registrar with DNS management
- (including an aside about CNAMEs pointing to MX records)
- Moving NS records (making the change to use the new registrar's DNS services)
- Setting up A and MX records at the new registrar's DNS control panel
So where I left off was setting up "my new mail hosting service".
When I realized I needed to move my hosting services, the first thought that occurred to me was to bring all of my hosting home. And while this would give me the most control over my domain (and seemingly would be lowest cost), it would also mean a lot of risk and a lot of work.
For example, I'd have to set up services like BIND (for DNS), Apache (for Web serving) and Postfix (for SMTP/email). I'd need to set up port forwarding at my router and put all these services on my iMac. To replicate the quality of what Richard was offering, I'd have to set up and maintain SPAM filtering like SpamAssassin. Even worse, I'd be at the whims of Comcast and my DHCP lease if my IP address changed, or they began to filter certain types of traffic. And worst of all, if a vulnerability were found in these services, I'd need to patch it ASAP.
I went down a similar choice when I chose my blogging software a few years ago-- build your own, or leverage what others have built... I firmly believe in not re-inventing the wheel, which is why I chose Google Apps. Here's why:
- Google Apps, for non-commercial entities, organizations and families is free.
- When you sign up for Google Apps you can use your own domain
- Google lets you point your MX servers to their mail servers
- They also offer POP/IMAP access to pull your mail from Google
- And yes, you can access your inbox via webmail, which you and I know as "Gmail"
- Finally, Gmail, if you've never used it, has excellent spam filtering
On top of everything else you can get at Google apps (calendaring, document sharing, etc.), this alone is worth the price of entry, which as I stated, for non-commercial/personal use, is free.
So to recap, Google Apps gives you reliable MX hosting, POP access to your email, first rate (you might even say unparalleled) SPAM filtering, and a first rate AJAX-enabled webmail interface, even of the email you've already downloaded to your POP client (so your email is always at your fingertips, even the stuff you've pulled to your desktop), all for free.
To top it off, their Google Reader service is plugging a hole that exists in my RSS strategy. I bought a license of NewsFire, which, when it started to crash all the time, I moved to Vienna, a open source RSS reader. But, accessing my feeds from my iPhone was not easy. I could import an .opml file, but the RSS readers for the iPhone are less than ready for prime time, and are not syncrhonized with Vienna. Google Reader, as a web service, is up to date whether I'm on my home laptop, checking it via my iPhone (yes, they have a mobile version for web phones), or from anywhere else where I'm not at my desktop.
Summary:
In the interest of focusing all the links in one place, here are the services I've highlighted in this series of posts:
- Domain Registar: Register.com (personally recommended)
- Domain Registar: EasyDNS (recommended by Tom)
- Domain Registar: Dreamhost (recommended by Spencer)
- Domain Registar: 1and1 (recommended by John)
- MX/POP Hosting: Google Apps (personally recommended)
- RSS Reader: Google Reader (personally recommended)
