The other day I signed up for $g(Google Apps) for my domain allowing me to use $g(GMail) as my mail client among other things. Initially, I had a little trouble configuring the $g(MX records) in order to get GMail working on discountASP.NET (DASP) and I noticed on their support forums others had similar issues. I could send email from the account but couldn’t get replies because sending TO my address failed. The mistake I made was in the MX records where I prefixed my domain with “mail” which was incorrect, no prefix is required. Once I corrected the settings, based on forum reply from DASP, GMail worked instantly.

Here are my DNS settings for Google Apps:

CNAME Record Manager : [Help?]
Canonical Name Record: Creates an alias from one hostname to another.
Use of CNAME is generally not recommended.

MX Record Manager : [Help?]
Mail Exchanger Record: Identifies the email server that handles email for a domain.

I really like discountASP.NET which is why I participate in their referral program. So far I’ve had 14 people use my referral ID so thanks to those of you who have signed up, I’ve already made my first $120! Btw, it’s nice to visit a forum for a company where you can consistently read messages that are thankful for such high quality support for a change.

Btw, be sure to check out Scott Hanselman’s post on Google Apps as it’s not the solution for everyone, at least not yet. I’m going to play with it for a bit and see how it works.