No More “On Behalf of” When Using Your Own Domain in Gmail
If you have ever sent an email using Gmail with one of your other email accounts (bellsouth.net, yourdomain.com, etc) you’ll notice that the message sent to the recipient lists, gilbert@gilsmethod.com (your real email – @yourdomain) on behalf of gilbert@gmail.com (your Gmail account @gmail) as the From: address.
Gmail announced today that they will allow users to send messages via Gmail using their own domains. This is great for Gmail users who would like to use multiple email addresses from one client. This also helps users look look professional and use the client that they love most.
From the Gmail Blog,
We heard your request for another option that wouldn’t show the "on behalf of" text loud and clear, and now there’s a new option that does just that. Instead of using Gmail’s servers to send the message, we’ll use the servers where your other email address lives. Since Gmail isn’t the originating domain, we don’t have to include "Sender" info in the header. No more "on behalf of."
How it Works
The old way – Gmail would send your emails using their domain name and attach an On Behalf Of to the send from address.
The new way – Gmail allows you to use your own domain to send messages. You look professional and get to use your favorite email client.
Images and description via Gmail Blog
The guide below will walk you through the simple process of updating your account so that you can start sending emails using Gmail with your domain.
If you have any comments or questions please post them below.
Set Up Gmail with Your Domain
1. While logged on to Gmail – Click on the Settings link located on the top-right corner of the screen.
2. In the Settings menu, click on the Accounts tab. Under the Send mail as section, click on the edit info link for the email address you would like to modify.
3. Click Next Step
4. When prompted, click on the Send through yourdomain.com SMTP servers radio button and enter the following information;
SMTP Server – in my case I use 1and1 for my domains, so the SMTP server is smtp.1and1.com if you use Yahoo!, MSN, GoDaddy, or another service you must log on to your email providers website to locate this setting.
Port – This value was also specified by 1and1, in my case it is 587, make sure to the same as you did for the SMTP.
Username – The username used to log on to your email account (not Gmail, but the account you are attempting to modify).
Password – Again the password for the account you are attempting to modify, not the Gmail account.
If your email provider supports an SSL secure connection make sure to add a checkmark to the Always use a secure connection check box.
Click Save Changes when you’re done.
Please Note: If you are having trouble authenticating try disabling the SSL security, your email provider might not support it.
5. Once you’ve saved the settings you will see the following message (will vary by email provider) below your email address;
Mail is sent through: smtp.yourdomain.com
Hi Gilberto and thanks for your reply! Your feedback to my second question makes sense and I’ll keep it in mind when I’m setting up everything.
I am certain that the maximum storage space is 10MB, with a 3MB sending limit – just double-checked. It makes sense that Gmail would act as a “client” in a way and hence also store my email – I guess that I’m more concerned if it is allowed to use the Gmail free service to store email for my professional domain account. I would rather let Gmail pull the mail rather than have it persisted (especially if the latter involves changing MX records).
I have already add a POP3 account for my email address for Gmail to check – just wish there was some way I could control how often Gmail polls for new messages.
Thanks for your help and advice thus far…much appreciated!
I get a “Server response: Remote server does not support TLS code(500)” error.
I have just checked with the hosting provider and they only support outgoing smtp authentication (username/password only) – no TLS or SSL support. Is there any other way to do this?
Shalan,
I’m glad that you found the reply useful. As of right now, there’s really no way to change the interval of time for polling of your POP 3 accounts, you can however do a forward to Gmail which should be instant or hit the Refresh button in the Gmail inbox. Hope this helps, have a great day.
Hi Gilberto,
Thank you for your excellent article! I’m making a concerted effort to simplify my life especially with regards to correspondence, and whilst it would be great to have everything in one place, I just have have 2 questions that I’m hoping you could answer (my apologies in advance if these are a bit juvenile!):
How does storage work out? My current host only allows me 10MB of email storage, and using Gmail servers to store my email instead (taking advantage of the 7.5 GB in particular) would be fantastic! Is this possible/allowed?
Secondly, will synchronizing my Gmail account (for my hosted domain) with my android phone (sent items, inbox, labels, etc) still be available?
Thank you!
Shalan,
With regards to the storage being 10MB…are you sure it’s not the sending limit? If your messages are being pulled from your host to Gmail then you need not worry about the emails taking up space on your host’s servers. You can tell your host to forward the messages or have gmail pull them. Let me know if you need help with the latter.
If you choose to use Gmail instead of your host to manage your messages you could tell your android phone to use Gmail instead and all of your information would be synced between Gmail and your phone. Hope this answers you questions…please let me know if you need any assistance or clarificaton.
@Amanda: That is exactly what I do, I wrote about it in the article below. Hope it helps. If you have any questions just let me know.
http://www.gilsmethod.com/combine-your-email-accounts-with-gmail
Hi Gilberto,
Question for you about this process. I also use 1and1, and previously I had my email for my 1and1 domain set up so that it got forwarded to my Gmail. I assume that I now have to set up a 1and1 “mailbox” for this email address instead of using the forwarding, but if I do this, how will I be *receiving* my email for my domain in Gmail?
I hope this makes sense…I’m just not sure how I can both send through my domain AND receive my domain email via Gmail.
Thanks!
An SMTP server that works with this is smtp2go which is mentioned here http://www.smtp2go.com/blog/gmail-on-behalf-of-smtp-server/
@Lee: Thanks for the feedback. However would it not be easier just to enable the Gmail feature? Thanks.
Now this is a smart move from Google! One of the reasons why I don’t use gmail that much was precisely this: branding. I need my customers to remember my brand, so sending emails from a branded domain makes sense.
I feel the same way. I was kind of annoyed with the “on behalf of” I think that a lot of people that were holding out on Gmail…may finally make the switch. My switch to Gmail came when they enabled offline access, that was the last straw for me. I just hope that they keep improving the product.
Shalan.
Have you tried unchecking the SSL option and trying it? Also you can send using Gmail’s servers…