How to use a personalized email address with Google Gmail

You love the ease of using Gmail - but you already have a personalized email account on your own domain - e.g. mail@yourname.com, or yourname@yourbusinessname.com, etc. Wouldn't it be fantastic to combine the advantages of both? Here's a DIY (Do It Yourself) guide to do it this holiday season - and it doesn't cost a dime:

1. Create a Google Gmail account.

2. Get the host for your domain to change your email address from a pop address to a forwarding address. If you have access to your hosting configuration, you can usually do it yourself. Please be careful doing this - it does lead to a short window of breakdown - when your email stops working temporarily. Best time to do it is over weekends if you are a business.

3. Forward your email address (from Step 2) to the new Gmail address you created in Step 1.

4. Go into the Settings tab of your Gmail interface in the web browser and then to the Forwarding and Pop Tab. You need to Enable Pop Access here and Archive Gmail's copy after accessing from POP client. That way your emails will always be available through Gmail (that is, till you run out of the 2GB free space)

5. Click on the Configuration Instructions link to follow directions for setting up your POP Email client - Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc. Remember to set your SMTP to the one that Google provides -that way your outgoing emails are also archived in your Gmail account - thus your Gmail account serves as a foolproof instantaneous archive of all your emails.

6. Sometimes you want to use the browser interface of Gmail to send emails (say when you are on a public access kiosk, etc. at an airport, convention, etc.). However you would still like to send out the emails using your personalized address - not you Gmail address. Gmail provides for this also. Go to the Settings->Accounts tab in Gmail and set your personalized account there. Also, don't forget to put in your signature in the General tab - it saves you a lot of typing.

7. This setup works great from your mobile phone also - Gmail is now accessible not only through smartphones, but pretty much any Java capable phone with a data connection. Now you can receive and send emails from your personalized account using any phone.

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