This blog, as you may have noticed, actually has a top level domain now.
The creation of this blog goes way back beyond the creation of the account, I’ve always wanted to blog, never knew what to name it.
I wasn’t sure if I would really work on it, but I’m spending money, so I better damn well do it. That’s how Girlfriend works out. She pays her own gym membership. If she doesn’t go, she’s throwing away money, and she hates throwing away money.
Now that I have a name, I’m unstuck. It’s freeing really, having a name that you have chosen, but needing to choose one is imprisoning.
Techderp.net, what’s it mean? Me, with tech derping on the net.
So here’s how things went. I did some research. I google domain names.
First thing that pops up is godaddy
Considering I’m not Kim Kardashian (thanks Kharel for that one), I decided to skip that one.
After significant derpitude, I found namecheap, ran the name by Girlfriend
She thought I should get the .me account, but it’s renewal was *way* too expensive
Having a balanced initial cost and renewal price made me think “ok, now I really have to blog hard”
purchase was pretty simple, I was like “that’s it”?
I then checked my email and found 4 emails… apparently I signed up for free email service for a year.
I investigated into that, found out I can get outlook.com email for free, forever instead. Namecheap charges 3$ a year after the first year. I’m typically a gmail user, so this is a weird change for me. I may or may not end up using imap on gmail. Btw, never use pop3, ever. If you use pop3, you’re crazy.
So I went into settings… WHAT ARE THESE FANANGLED MX RECORD THINGS
purchase was pretty simple, I was like “that’s it”?
I then checked my email and found 4 emails… apparently I signed up for free email service for a year.
I investigated into that, found out I can get outlook.com email for free, forever instead. Namecheap charges 3$ a year after the first year. I’m typically a gmail user, so this is a weird change for me. I may or may not end up using imap on gmail. Btw, never use pop3, ever. If you use pop3, you’re crazy.
So I went into settings… WHAT ARE THESE FANANGLED MX RECORD THINGS
So I applied for my own domain on hotmail.com
Microsoft said I needed to set techderp.net into my mx hostname, and some long string of garbage into the mx record field…. tried it, didn’t work
Tried every other trick the page had… didn’t help
So I googled till my hand cramped. OK OK I GIVE UP
Tried every other trick the page had… didn’t help
So I googled till my hand cramped. OK OK I GIVE UP
I contacted livechat tech support for namecheap.com
17 in queue
15 in queue (2 minutes later)
“Hi my name is Vladimir how many I help you?”
Wait, that was fast… maybe there is some other catch, maybe he doesn’t speak english
Wait, that was fast… maybe there is some other catch, maybe he doesn’t speak english
I told him what I wanted.
“can you give me the microsoft instructions?”
Ok, so I copied and pasted everything
“Oh, here is the issue, you needed a @ instead of your actual domain name”
Fuck you #microsoft for giving terrible instructions. Do better next time.
Fuck you #microsoft for giving terrible instructions. Do better next time.
Oh and thanks for the free email
There's also a way to use your gmail account in a similar way by allowing Google to handle your MX Records.
ReplyDeleteSomething about changing the mailto or something, I don't remember exactly but it's done on Gmail's side and they don't see that it's really a gmail address.
From there you just do a typical mail forward to your gmail account in question so that your domain name is what's always seen for your email rather than your gmail address.
Hope this information helps you out if you wish to continue using Google (it doesn't cost anything to set that up either).
+Glenn McMann
ReplyDeleteTo use it on a gmail account, you have to have a full out google apps account. In december, google pulled the plug on free up to 10 user google app accounts, and now it's paid.
I've heard rumors you can get a single user one by creating the account as a "trial" then canceling the trial, keeping your email, but I'm not really sure if that's true.
Totally not what I'm referring to at all.
ReplyDeleteIn gmail (and your email client of choice), you set it up so that your email address's "Reply To" address is your domain name (name@domain.tld). Then you do a mail forward on the DNS level and have the email forward to your gmail account.
This is free and doesn't require Google App Engine anywhere.