Adding a 'real' email address to a domain?

[paperfist]

So Anandtech;

I have my own domain and I want to add a new email address that isn't an alias. So in addition to mike@youknowme.com I want to also have accounting@youknowme.com.

I know I can just create an alias accounting@youknowme.com but Quickbooks doesn't support this

I have to pay for a new domain, right? I have google domains as my registrar.

 

[sdifox]

Do you host your own email server?

 

[manly]

Do you host your own email server?

based on the original post, it's safe to assume no.

An email address is just an account (or an alias) on whatever managed email service you use.
Obviously it's not a new domain because the @example.com portion of the address is always the same.

Let us know if this points you in the right direction, or if you need more help.

 

[paperfist]

Do you host your own email server?

No, I have my own domain and use gmail as the host.

I do have mad genius as my web host, but I never converted my email to him.

 

[paperfist]

based on the original post, it's safe to assume no.

An email address is just an account (or an alias) on whatever managed email service you use.
Obviously it's not a new domain because the @example.com portion of the address is always the same.

Let us know if this points you in the right direction, or if you need more help.

I talked to google and Microsoft and it appears I have to pay for an additional email address if it’s not going to be an alias.

 

[sdifox]

No, I have my own domain and use gmail as the host.

I do have mad genius as my web host, but I never converted my email to him.

check your hosting plan? You may have x number of email addr included, albeit webmail.

 

[paperfist]

check your hosting plan? You may have x number of email addr included, albeit webmail.

Wow what a dummy I am lol. I’ve been using gmail so long I forgot about hosted emails.

 

[manly]

Wow what a dummy I am lol. I’ve been using gmail so long I forgot about hosted emails.

Personally I'd rather use hosted Gmail, but yeah they charge per user unless you're grandfathered into one of the old GApps accounts. Email is way more complex than it seems, so the overall UX with Gmail is better than with a small provider. YMMV.

Google recently announced Workspace (fka G Suite fka Google Apps) is free for all Google accounts, but I don't know if that means what it sounds like?? I think it means consumer accounts can access all the web apps now.

Google Workspace for everyone

By bringing Google Workspace to everyone, we’re making it easy for people to stay connected, get organized and achieve more together.

blog.google

I'm assuming what we're talking about here, i.e. corporate mailboxes are not actually free. Why doesn't an alias work? How would QuickBooks even know accounting@ and mike@ both hit the same mailbox?

 

[paperfist]

Personally I'd rather use hosted Gmail, but yeah they charge per user unless you're grandfathered into one of the old GApps accounts. Email is way more complex than it seems, so the overall UX with Gmail is better than with a small provider. YMMV.

Google recently announced Workspace (fka G Suite fka Google Apps) is free for all Google accounts, but I don't know if that means what it sounds like?? I think it means consumer accounts can access all the web apps now.

Google Workspace for everyone

By bringing Google Workspace to everyone, we’re making it easy for people to stay connected, get organized and achieve more together.

blog.google

I'm assuming what we're talking about here, i.e. corporate mailboxes are not actually free. Why doesn't an alias work? How would QuickBooks even know accounting@ and mike@ both hit the same mailbox?

I'm in a pickle as usual, my webhost said I need my domain on his site to take advantage of email. Since I just renewed my domain I believe you can't transfer for 30-60 days.

Yeah, that's the reason I'm on gmail and the last host/domain I was on gave me all kinds of grief with my emails getting blocked/undelivered or going to spam to my customers.

It does look consumer only. I mean it's only $6/month extra for an additional email and I can afford it, but I hate raising overhead for no reason.

Well I don't know a lot about alias emails but it seems it's just a forwarding type of email that you can't 'log' into. Quickbooks in their infinite wisdom and with their requirement of 2 step verification process I can't log into accounting@youknowme.com to retrieve credentials. I searched their database and other people complained of the same issue.

 

[manly]

I'm in a pickle as usual, my webhost said I need my domain on his site to take advantage of email. Since I just renewed my domain I believe you can't transfer for 30-60 days.

Yeah, that's the reason I'm on gmail and the last host/domain I was on gave me all kinds of grief with my emails getting blocked/undelivered or going to spam to my customers.

It does look consumer only. I mean it's only $6/month extra for an additional email and I can afford it, but I hate raising overhead for no reason.

Well I don't know a lot about alias emails but it seems it's just a forwarding type of email that you can't 'log' into. Quickbooks in their infinite wisdom and with their requirement of 2 step verification process I can't log into accounting@youknowme.com to retrieve credentials. I searched their database and other people complained of the same issue.

That is not true, as your domain name registrar can be disconnected from any other Internet service you host/use for that domain. Changing the email provider is as simple as changing your DNS MX records from Google to the new guy. As with any DNS records changes, it could take hours to propagate globally. I'm not saying you should do this (see next sentence), but it's always an option.

And yes, running your own mail server or using some small provider who isn't a domain expert is a recipe for dissatisfaction. That's why I'd rather stick with Gmail, although I wouldn't want to eat $72 of unnecessary cost per year. I'm a cheap bastard.

I'm not familiar with QuickBooks, but I don't logically see how 2FA would not work with an alias email address. But I certainly could be wrong here. Good luck!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Not sure how it works with a shared hosting plan but when running your own server you can usually just make an alias in /etc/postfix/virtual.txt (sometimes there is no .txt, depends on distro/version)

Format is:

alias@aliasdomain.com real@realemaildomain.com
alias2@aliasdomain.com real@realemaildomain.com
alias3@aliasdomain.com real@realemaildomain.com

Assuming you're running Postfix.

Of course both domains needs to have a proper DNS record and stuff setup and be an actual domain that you own and have MX record be the actual mail server.

I presume the hosting package might have a way to do that through their UI though.

 

[mxnerd]

Quickbooks is just an accounting software, how does it has anything to do with email? (Oops, missed your explanation above )

==

Don't host your own email server from home unless you are very experienced.

==

Cheap email hosting. as @manly has said, you just change MX record if you don't want to change registrar. Yet the problem is that maybe some email hosting providers don't allow separate domain registration/DNS/email hosting

Best 8 Cheap (or Free) Email Hosting - May 2024

With so many affordable and (almost) free email hosting providers on the market, the provider you choose will should be based on price, storage and reliability.

thedigitalnonprofit.com

 

[paperfist]

That is not true, as your domain name registrar can be disconnected from any other Internet service you host/use for that domain. Changing the email provider is as simple as changing your DNS MX records from Google to the new guy. As with any DNS records changes, it could take hours to propagate globally. I'm not saying you should do this (see next sentence), but it's always an option.

And yes, running your own mail server or using some small provider who isn't a domain expert is a recipe for dissatisfaction. That's why I'd rather stick with Gmail, although I wouldn't want to eat $72 of unnecessary cost per year. I'm a cheap bastard.

I'm not familiar with QuickBooks, but I don't logically see how 2FA would not work with an alias email address. But I certainly could be wrong here. Good luck!

I'm not sure why he said that. I actually rented a VPS server so to even setup email with them I'd have to have them do it.

I just tried it 10 more times even deleting the primary email I had in QB and adding the accouting@youknowme.com. It doesn't work because I can't sign into (as an alias) accounting@youknowme.com. QB is known for not being the best coded piece of software. Anyway I bit the bullet for now and just added that email to my domain to get it working.

Quickbooks is just an accounting software, how does it has anything to do with email?

Because in-order to bill directly to customers via email you have to have your email setup and verified within Quickbooks.

 

[manly]

I'm not sure why he said that. I actually rented a VPS server so to even setup email with them I'd have to have them do it.

I just tried it 10 more times even deleting the primary email I had in QB and adding the accouting@youknowme.com. It doesn't work because I can't sign into (as an alias) accounting@youknowme.com. QB is known for not being the best coded piece of software. Anyway I bit the bullet for now and just added that email to my domain to get it working.

There are other ways of handling this, but QuickBooks is handling it in kind of an awful way (you giving them your real email credentials). But it makes sense so far as small biz software doing what works easily instead of what is technically best.

As mxnerd hinted at, I wouldn't want to host my email with some provider that doesn't know what they're doing. The good news is that if you don't want to pay Google $72 per user each year, he presented some reasonable options. The last thing you should do is run a mail server on a VPS unless you absolutely must (just don't do it).

 

[paperfist]

There are other ways of handling this, but QuickBooks is handling it in kind of an awful way (you giving them your real email credentials). But it makes sense so far as small biz software doing what works easily instead of what is technically best.

As mxnerd hinted at, I wouldn't want to host my email with some provider that doesn't know what they're doing. The good news is that if you don't want to pay Google $72 per user each year, he presented some reasonable options. The last thing you should do is run a mail server on a VPS unless you absolutely must (just don't do it).

It might have something to do with it being used for a merchant account. In the documents I read Intuit was looking to add alias emails in future versions.

I initially didn't see his list, but I'll take a look at it. Blue Host was recommended to me a few times. I'll talk to my current host again, sdifox I think has the right idea in going with domain emails. The VPS was going to be use to host QB, but security wise I'm going to pass.

***hmm actually I wonder now that I've setup my accounting@youknowme.com and had it verified if I can now switch it to an alias....

 

[manly]

Google will make free ‘legacy’ G Suite accounts pay for its office apps starting in July

Original Google Apps for Business accounts that were grandfathered into a free tier since 2012 are being transitioned to paid accounts. I will switch my email provider to Zoho Mail.