Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#471

Post by jervisfm » Mon, Dec 10, 2012, 5:38 PM UTC

meaty wrote: post #330

fusiongyro wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do this. It's not easy, but it's not as bad as most of the comments here would lead you to believe. If you have the wherewithal to run things on a server it's definitely within reach, albeit probably not a cost-effective way to spend your time. Let me make a few recommendations. I'm not a sysadmin by trade but I know a few things you can do that will improve your lot in life running mail. - Postfix and Dovecot. The…

+1 for this. I've run my own mail server for 15 years, since I got my first permanent connection. I host on the end of it as I have a large distrust of "the cloud". It is cost effective for me as it has increased my merchantable skill portfolio. I've ended up designing some mail systems (50k+ users) for some large ISPs in the past thanks to my accumulated knowledge. Debian is probably the easiest to get off the groun…

Do you mind sharing which instructions or guides you follow in setting up the mail server ? I would love to play with this stuff on my free time.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#472

Post by vmialik » Mon, Dec 10, 2012, 8:54 PM UTC

callmeed wrote: post #279

Crap, ALL our customers use google apps for email (because we don't want to host email on our servers and it's free). All our customers are small businesses (photographers, designers) and usually just make 1 to 3 mailboxes. Any alternative out there?

The free accounts should stay free. However opening new accounts will not be free :(

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#473

Post by Shorel » Mon, Dec 10, 2012, 9:47 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #422

Shorel wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure it will be a lot cheaper on AWS.

The smallest instance running 24/7 is $175.20 for 365 days. Add in S3 storage for 25G of data, and that adds $28.50. This does not include incoming bandwidth, bandwidth used by your IMAP or webmail client, or DNS lookups that you'll do for every message received. (Also, spam filtering is CPU-intensive, so if you get a lot of email, a Micro instance may not be big enough.) This doesn't include a secondary MX, either.…

The info I get is that the smallest instance is a micro instance at just $23 for 365 days, not on demand, but a reserved instance.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#474

Post by Shorel » Tue, Dec 11, 2012, 12:03 AM UTC

jfb wrote: post #430

Shorel wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure it will be a lot cheaper on AWS.

Why use EC2 for this? You don't need the elasticity, and you can get cycles a lot cheaper elsewhere.

Virtualized dedicated server with SSH root for $23 a year?

Just tell me where to sign up (next year when AWS free tier expires).

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#475

Post by adowers » Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 4:16 AM UTC

spankalee wrote: post #22

As a Googler and for much longer, a Google Apps user for my family, this is sad news. I wish they had just fixed the experience for "vanity domains" so that they didn't require all the enterprise features, and didn't let administrators have complete control of users accounts. Then they could roll out new features to vanity users without needing the enterprise controls. I understand that this is a little tricky, and i…

My recommendation would be to use Outlook.com. I am a LONG TIME Google Apps domain admin for SMBs and personal domains. Since this announcement and my feeling of total abandonment from Google for the "small guys" I started investigating. MICROSOFT DOES THIS VERY WELL!!!. Now, that being said, it isn't exactly as polished as the Google Apps experience but the Microsoft re-work of its web mail is great. A quick search will give some good reviews. So...what is a guy to do?...well... you simply go to domains.live.com, go through the registration process. Once complete you will have access the the Admin Center. You then administrate your domain email as you would have in Google Apps. Again, it will be the current Microsoft way BUT it works well. I just did it for a photographer (yep...small business). It works perfectly. Once you register for the Admin Center, you can administrate MULTIPLE domains from YOUR one Admin Center. Also, Microsoft is MUCH more generous with the number of user accounts you can create for your domain...Up to 500 at last count. Naturally it also comes with Calendar, SkyDrive, etc. They give you all of the DNS records you need. Also, once you set it all up...if you go to Outlook.com directly and sign in with your personal domain email address/account, it will do so for you always (if you use the Microsoft DNS records for email---> like mail.yourdomain.com) Otherwise you will initially get the Hotmail interface. Again, a quick search will yield articles for changing to the NEW Outlook.com interface. Happy Hosting!