In mid-April I started routing all of my michaelwender.com email through Google Apps Gmail. Since that time, I've definitely seen a boost in my productivity. Gmail's "conversations", filtering, and spam protection capabilities make working with my email much easier and quicker.
However, despite this boost, one small snag temporarily threatened my confidence in the switch-over, and if you're editing your MX records on a WHM/CPanel web server, you might experience this easily fixable problem too. Continue reading to see how I solved the problem...
The Problem
After updating the MX records for michaelwender.com on my WHM web server as per Google's instructions, it wasn't long before I was up and running with Gmail for my domain. However, after a week or two, I discovered that emails from one of my clients were not getting through.
Eventually, I thought to check my email on my original web server via the Horde webmail interface available in the CPanel. Sure enough, there were all of my client's missing emails, and there were also several emails sent via my website's online contact form and my WordPress blog. The common denominator here was that any emails routed through web servers setup under my WHM Reseller account were not getting routed via the new MX records in my domain DNS settings.
The Solution
In order to correct this problem, I had to make one simple change to my Apache configuration files: I had to move the domain entry for michaelwender.com in /etc/localdomains to /etc/remotedomains. That switch told my server's email software (Exim) to treat emails for my domain as remote.
Conclusion
That simple fix solved the problem, and I am reassured that switching to Google Apps Gmail has been one of my best office productivity moves of the year.
Finally, if you're interested in becoming a Google Apps Gmail power user, check out this article from Web Worker Daily on How to Crank Through Your Gmail.
Here's a link to a Google Apps Support page describing the problem I outline in this post.
Hi! i'm having what sounds like a similar problem with a Cpanel / Google Apps implementation. I'm trying to submit a PHP form (contact form) to a database (it works) and send to an email address too. The email address part doesn't work though - not even sending to non-domain addresses (e.g. To and From are hotmail addresses). I think I'm on a reseller's server though and I dont' know how / if I can access the Apache Configuration files you mention. Is this done through one of the icons on the CPanel interface (hopefully)? Thanks in advance for any help!
Jay,
If it turns out that your problem is due to the same misconfiguration that I describe, then you will not be able to fix it via CPanel; however, this is something your webhost should be able to fix.
Simply ask them to move the domain entry for your domain from /etc/localdomains to /etc/remotedomains. Mention to them that you are wanting your domain to handle all email services remotely.
Hello Michael,
I too am facing the same problem as you described above.
I have access to WHM and cPanel both. but have never used Apache before.
Please provide step by step directions regarding how to do this (moving domain from /etc/localdomains to /etc/remotedomains)
--
Regards,
Abhijeet
Abhijeet,
If you only have access to CPanel and WHM, then you will be unable to edit the necessary files. However, you can send a support request to your hosting provider that reads as follows:
Hello,
My host has confirmed that my domain is moved from /etc/localdomains to /etc/remotedomains but I am still facing the same problem.
I am using phpBB forums and I have set
Use SMTP Server for email --> Yes
SMTP Server Address --> smtp.gmail.com
SMTP Username --> abhijeet@shrigonda.in
SMTP Password --> XXXXXXXXXX
When some one tries to signup for my forum it gives the following error :
Ran into problems sending Mail. Response: 530 5.7.0 Must issue a STARTTLS command first h40sm4102927wxd
DEBUG MODE
Line : 126
File : smtp.php
Please let me know how I can solve this problem
--
Best Regards,
Abhijeet Nagawade
Abhijeet,
Read this post about "How to use Gmail as your SMTP Server". According to that post, it looks like you don't have your phpBB SMTP settings configured correctly to work with Google's SMTP. More specifically, I would first recommend setting your SMTP username and password to match a Google email address (e.g. someone@gmail.com) and the password associated with that address.
Let me know if that solves your problem.
i have the same problem. but i'm afraid it doesnt work.
thanks
The most recent updates of the WHM/cPanel software have fixed this bug. In the past two months, I have edited the MX records for three domains with the software correctly moving the domain entry from /etc/localdomains/ to /etc/remotedomains/.
thanks! i was having the exact same problem and couldn't figure out how to fix this through cPanel. i've contacted my host to make the required changes.
cPanel has pushed out an update that fixes this issue. Domains should automatically find their way to /etc/localdomains or /etc/remotedomains appropriately unless the server has been explicitly configured not to do so.
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