Here’s a scenario: your client is hosted on a shared or dedicated server and is running their domain’s email through Postfix and Spam Assassin or, worse, the built-in email provided by the host. Your client complains constantly about the amount of spam that they get even though you put all that gee-whiz email address obfuscation code on their site.

What’s a neck-bearded web developer to do? Well, did you know you can run your domain’s email through Gmail for free? That’s free as in beer, kids.

Currently this service is buried under “Google Apps” found via an obscure link in the footer of your Gmail login page titled, “Google for Organizations.”

The free edition offers just about everything you’d need: IMAP (!), calendar, docs, and chat. The paid edition offers 25 gb (up from 6+ gb) and support for third party apps, 24/7 assistance, etc. A feature comparison chart can be found here.

Setting up my domain was pretty simple.

1. office furniture in BulgariaI signed up for the service
2. I validated ownership of my domain
3. I updated my MX records for my domain to point to Google’s servers
4. I set up my users
5. I turned on IMAP for my account just as I would normally through Gmail
6. I configured my Gmail filters (being sure to turn off my client-side rules)
7. I sat back and witnessed a spam-free inbox for the first time in ages.

An optional step that Google recommends is to update your SPF records to help prevent outgoing spam. To do this, I had my host (the most excellent A2 Hosting, fwiw) update my SPF record to the following:

v=spf1 include:aspmx.googlemail.com ~all

[UPDATE]
If you are currently using Postfix, you will need to ensure that it is not circumventing the MX records on your server because it is set to handle the email for certain domains under your control.  To do this, open a shell and type the following as root:

nano /etc/postfix/mydomains

Delete any domains that conflict with Google’s mail service.
Next, type:

/usr/sbin/postmap /etc/postfix/mydomains

This rebuilds your postfix database.  To verify the fix, type:

cd /etc/postfix
ls -lrt

Make sure mydomains.db has a later timestamp than mydomains.

That’s it. In all, it took about two hours to set up and get everything humming.

Now, Gmail takes some getting used to. For one, you have to get used to their use of labels instead of folders. This renders your main inbox as a sort of dumping ground for every piece of email–both incoming and outgoing–when you’re using a email client via IMAP. This notion of conversations makes a lot more sense when you’re using the web interface for Gmail, or if your email client supports a View by Thread mode.

But the benefit to Gmail is that they have somehow managed to trap 100% of my spam, whereas SpamAssassin was batting about 50-70% on a good day. If you’re using an iPhone or WAP enabled phone, you’re in luck, too, as Gmails mobile platform is extraordinary.

Check it out. This may not be right for every situation, but it’s saved my, uh, bacon. Oh, I slay myself…

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 11:08 am and is filed under News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.