[Forum] Google Applications and vBulletin

[BrightStar]

Hiya

Could someone please guide me if I can set up my forum domain email to be used with google applications but rest of the things staying as they are?

www.domain.com ---- Forum Address
mail.domain.com ---- Google Applications Email

And if so then would I still be able to send mass email to users and members would still be getting instant notifications etc?

Thanks a lot

[BrightStar]

Bump

[ENF]

If you already have Google Apps Email functioning, then all you need to do is setup an account that will be used by the forum to send email.

After you have configured that user name and password for the new account, you can setup your SMTP services in vBulletin to use the Google SMTP servers to send mail via the new account.

Your vBulletin email settings should look like this in the mail configuration section:

SMTP Email: Yes
SMTP Host: smtp.gmail.com
SMTP Port: 587
SMTP User Name: [email protected]
SMTP User Password: userpasswordhere
SMTP Secure Connection: TLS

We use Google apps for all of our email hosting which include 8 vBulletin installs using this configuration.

Good Luck.

[mamahues]

If you already have Google Apps Email functioning, then all you need to do is setup an account that will be used by the forum to send email.

After you have configured that user name and password for the new account, you can setup your SMTP services in vBulletin to use the Google SMTP servers to send mail via the new account.

Your vBulletin email settings should look like this in the mail configuration section:

SMTP Email: Yes
SMTP Host: smtp.gmail.com
SMTP Port: 587
SMTP User Name: [email protected]
SMTP User Password: userpasswordhere
SMTP Secure Connection: TLS

We use Google apps for all of our email hosting which include 8 vBulletin installs using this configuration.

Good Luck.

Sorry to barge in on this thread, but ENF, is Google Apps a free service? We looked into it about a year ago and I thought it was, but it appears the business is $50 a year. Is this correct or am I looking at the wrong app?

In addition, are you sending and receiving email directly from google? I setup a gmail account for my new site, but I haven't done anything with the email yet and I really need to.

[ENF]

Sorry to barge in on this thread, but ENF, is Google Apps a free service? We looked into it about a year ago and I thought it was, but it appears the business is $50 a year. Is this correct or am I looking at the wrong app?

In addition, are you sending and receiving email directly from google? I setup a gmail account for my new site, but I haven't done anything with the email yet and I really need to.

You can get the basic (Standard) Google App service for free.

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html

When you use Google Apps, you are using your own domain name and DNS services. Google is merely providing you mail handling services for your domain.

You'll need to know how to configure your DNS MX records to work with Google Apps and your own domain name.

[mamahues]

You can get the basic (Standard) Google App service for free.

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html

When you use Google Apps, you are using your own domain name and DNS services. Google is merely providing you mail handling services for your domain.

You'll need to know how to configure your DNS MX records to work with Google Apps and your own domain name.

Great, thank you so much!

Now I just need to figure out how to configure the records. I am new to all of this and have no clue how to go about doing it yet.

Thanks again

[ENF]

Here's a great guide to help you get started:

http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=33352

The 2nd Tab there gives specific help for a number of popular DNS providers.

Good Luck.

[mamahues]

Here's a great guide to help you get started:

http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=33352

The 2nd Tab there gives specific help for a number of popular DNS providers.

Good Luck.

Wonderful! Thank you again for your help!

[mamahues]

ENF - I setup vb exactly as you stated above and had support setup my mx records...I am receiving the following error now. Any clue?

The following errors were outputted by PHP when attempting to send mail:


Warning: stream_socket_enable_crypto() [streams.crypto]: this stream does not support SSL/crypto in /home/allabou1/public_html/includes/class_mail.php on line 654

Warning: Unable to negotitate TLS handshake. in /home/allabou1/public_html/includes/class_mail.php on line 601

[ENF]

ENF - I setup vb exactly as you stated above and had support setup my mx records...I am receiving the following error now. Any clue?

The following errors were outputted by PHP when attempting to send mail:


Warning: stream_socket_enable_crypto() [streams.crypto]: this stream does not support SSL/crypto in /home/allabou1/public_html/includes/class_mail.php on line 654

Warning: Unable to negotitate TLS handshake. in /home/allabou1/public_html/includes/class_mail.php on line 601

You need to have OpenSSL enabled in PHP.

Contact your host about how to get OpenSSL enabled on your server.

[BrightStar]

Google free service is limited to 50 accounts in their email and then rest of it has to be upgraded.

[ENF]

Google free service is limited to 50 accounts in their email and then rest of it has to be upgraded.

That is correct and has always been the case with the free version. We only use about 6 or 7 accounts per domain for management & site operations (including the actual forum emails).

[mamahues]

You need to have OpenSSL enabled in PHP.

Contact your host about how to get OpenSSL enabled on your server.

I contacted support and this is the response I received....how else am I going to get email to work?



Do you want https on your websites domain name? ie https://yourdomain.com

If this is what you want we advise against it for the following reasons:

1) https websites require more CPU power to process requests causing a slower server,

2) a 19.99 USD setup fee is required to cover the setup time for open SSL and installing your certificate.


Please reconsider your request and let us know.


Best regards

[ENF]

Wow. I don't think your host knows what they are talking about. Do they really charge for enabling OpenSSL?

You don't need a certificate for this OpenSSL we're discussing.

What you want is the OpenSSL enabled in PHP so that you can use secure SMTP services through SSL/TLS. *this does NOT require a certificate to be issued*

You can read about OpenSSL here: http://www.openssl.org/

Basically, your PHP install needs to be compiled with OpenSSL.

If you host doesn't understand this... I'm not sure what you should do outside of changing to a new host.

[BrightStar]

I contacted support and this is the response I received....how else am I going to get email to work?



Do you want https on your websites domain name? ie https://yourdomain.com

If this is what you want we advise against it for the following reasons:

1) https websites require more CPU power to process requests causing a slower server,

2) a 19.99 USD setup fee is required to cover the setup time for open SSL and installing your certificate.


Please reconsider your request and let us know.


Best regards

Well you have to make it clear to your host what are you trying to achieve. Just tell them to enable openssl in your php configuration and that should be free or charge otherwise see ENF's last post