Google domain owns YOU!

November 20, 2008 5:24 PM

I recently bought a domain through Google's Apps for Your Domain/GoDaddy partnership. How do I add my own content?

It was an impulse buy because I wanted to see what GAFYD was and it was only $10. Apparently GAFYD doesn't have hosted server space though, so I'll need to redirect it to a new host. Has anyone done this? How do I go about setting up the domain and mail forwarding, etc. with my new host so that admin.domain.com goes to GAFYD while domain.com goes to my web content? I'm not a total dummy w/r/t the internet, but I appreciate clear instructions. For example, it wasn't entirely clear until after I made the purchase that GoDaddy = registrar, Google = GAFYD, and hosted server space = nobody. Oops.

And if anyone wants to recommend a sweet+cheap host, I'm all ears. Thanks!

posted by Chris4d to computers & internet (8 comments total)

http://nearlyfreespeech.net = your new host.
posted by icarus at 5:36 PM on November 20, 2008

How do I go about setting up the domain and mail forwarding, etc. with my new host so that admin.domain.com goes to GAFYD while domain.com goes to my web content

I don't understand that part of your question, but:

Go set up an account with Dreamhost (or any other host; I'm familiar with Dreamhost but the steps are essentially the same). Tell Dreamhost, via the admin panel, that you want to host yourdomain.com. Don't worry that Dreamhost and GAFYD have no connection with each other, that's the next thing you'll take care of.

Go to GAFYD or GoDaddy, wherever your domain registration is administered, and change your DNS entry to the DNS servers that Dreamhost told you to use. THAT is the connection.

Put your content into your Dreamhost space.

Wait a day or two for the DNS change to "propagate" through all the DNS servers in the world. You will be able to see your content immediately via the Dreamhost admin panel, but it may be a while before "http://yourdomain.com" takes you there. Be patient.

Go set up your email in the Dreamhost admin panel.
posted by bricoleur at 5:40 PM on November 20, 2008

That all makes sense but the part I'm not clear about is this: right now, when I go to domain.com, I get my start page for GAFYD. If I change where the domain points to, how do I get to GAFYD? And how does google still handle my email? And how can I make the various google apps still look like they're part of domain.com (mail.domain.com, docs.domain.com, etc.)?

Thanks so far!
posted by Chris4d at 5:49 PM on November 20, 2008

How do I go about setting up the domain and mail forwarding, etc. with my new host so that admin.domain.com goes to GAFYD while domain.com goes to my web content

By adding c names to your DNS. Here is a link to one of google's help pages about it:


posted by meta87 at 5:50 PM on November 20, 2008

whoops here you go:

Creating CNAME records
posted by meta87 at 5:50 PM on November 20, 2008

Oh and to have the email pointed to google you would change the mx records at whatever host you choose:

Configuring MX Records
posted by meta87 at 5:52 PM on November 20, 2008

Actually, GAFYD does effectively have hosted server space. You can map any google Sites site to a regular kind of url.

If you have something custom like wordpress or legacy content, it won't work, but for a regular web site it's a pretty strong solution. This is a little bit of a self-link since I helped set it up, but here's an example that's actually a Google site.
posted by idb at 4:21 AM on November 21, 2008

thanks idb, you're right... I like the ability to tinker with everything more than google sites allows, but that may be a good solution for many people.
posted by Chris4d at 8:40 AM on November 21, 2008