Google Apps: administrator guide

257 Pages·2007·11.06 MB·English

by  David W. Boles

© 2008 David W. Boles. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or Publisher and General
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This book is dedicated to my beloved wife Janna Marie Sweenie, who for over
20 years has stood shoulder-to-shoulder and heartbeat-to-heartbeat with me.
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Acknowledgments
Big thanks to SuperAgent Matt Wagner of Fresh Books, who is always
reliable in friendship, persistent in negotiation, and insightful in the
marketplace. I am grateful to Kevin Harreld at Course Technology PTR for
having the vision to see the value of Google Apps Administrator Guide
long before it came into being. I appreciate the keen eye and kind hand
of my editor, Kezia Endsley, who always made everything you read here
better. Thank you also to Gordon Davidescu, who provided a careful and
spot-on technical edit. Thanks, too, to all the behind-the-scenes Super-
Geniuses at Thomson whom I have yet to meet, but who have already
given us their finest work, including Gene Redding and Katherine
Stimson. I also want to express my respect for the readers of my Urban
Semiotic blog–you always provide outstanding feedback and criticism for
all my writing efforts. The tidings for this book began with your com-
ments. I also thank Google–and my secret Google insiders–for their
advice and for creating such fine software that can handle both celebrat-
ing and poking without losing a single stride. Finally, a slew of kudos go
to the faculty, staff, and student body of Boles University, who all know
in their bones if it isn’t happening online, it isn’t happening at all.
About the Author
David W. Boles currently hails from the urban Heights of Jersey City,
New Jersey, after finding birth on the hard, crackling, plains of the
Nebraska prairie. Other books include GIS material for three textbooks
from Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, Hand Jive: American Sign Language for
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Acknowledgments
Real Life–with Janna M. Sweenie–for Barnes & Noble Publishing New
York, and Windows 95 Communication and Online Secrets for IDG Books
Worldwide. Bad Baby Signs: Words No Infant Should Know! is a new
project, providing a laughing look at the ever-expanding Baby Signs
Movement, and is co-written with Janna M. Sweenie. David has written
for c|net, boot, and Windows Magazine and was a writer for and the East
Coast Editor of eyepiece — the official publication of the Guild of British
Camera Technicians.
David’s MFA is from Columbia University. His polymathic teaching credits
range from Public Health to Technical Theatre to Playwriting, Directing,
Composition, Criticism, and American Sign Language and include fine
institutions of higher learning such as Columbia University, New York
University, Fordham University, University of Medicine and Dentistry of
New Jersey, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, Saint
Peter’s College, and the College of New Rochelle. He served as a visiting
professor at the UC Davis program in Sports Medicine. He is also the
founder of Urban Semiotic, a blog examining the hardships of living poor
in the city core. David is the founder of Boles University, located locally
online at http://BolesUniversity.com.
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 Your Google Apps Introduction ............................................................1
I’m Kidding; But Not Really ......................................................................................1
The Serious Beauty; No Kidding ..............................................................................1
Pretty Platform Independent ...................................................................................2
How Will This Book Help You? ......................................................................................2
Easy Enough for a Nine-Year-Old ............................................................................2
A Taste Test: Picking One of Semi-Four Flavors ...................................................3
A Semiotic Promise ...........................................................................................................4
Those Who Have Come Before You ...............................................................................5
CHAPTER 2 Preparing Your Domain ..........................................................................7
Tell Me, Is It Safe? .............................................................................................................7
Server Protection ........................................................................................................8
Logical Protection ......................................................................................................8
If It’s Good Enough for Google... .............................................................................8
Personal Protection ....................................................................................................9
Welcome to BolesUniversity.com! ................................................................................9
Self-Served Homepage ............................................................................................10
Private Label Start Page .........................................................................................10
Private Label Gmail .................................................................................................10
Private Label Calendar ............................................................................................12
Private Label Docs and Spreadsheets ..................................................................12
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Contents
Private Label Blog ....................................................................................................12
Private Label Web Pages ........................................................................................14
Picking the Right Domain ............................................................................................14
Splitting the Baby ....................................................................................................15
Tying the Gordian Knot ..........................................................................................16
Signing Up for Service ...................................................................................................16
Picking Your Poison .................................................................................................16
Giving Up the Information ....................................................................................18
Thinking About Users .............................................................................................18
Not So Fast: Cut Once, Measure Twice ................................................................20
Signed Up: What Next? .................................................................................................21
Checking DNS ...........................................................................................................21
Editing Zone Files .....................................................................................................21
Making MX Records .................................................................................................23
Touch That! ...............................................................................................................25
Don’t Touch That! ....................................................................................................26
The CNAME Tease ....................................................................................................27
SPF Records: Not Just Suntan Protection Anymore .........................................28
Lowering TTL .............................................................................................................28
The Virtue of Patience .............................................................................................28
WHOIS Confirmation ..............................................................................................29
Trust, But Verify ..............................................................................................................31
Google Says What? ..................................................................................................31
The Return of the Dreaded CNAME .....................................................................32
HTML File ...................................................................................................................32
If You Need Help .............................................................................................................33
PIN ...............................................................................................................................33
Google Groups ..........................................................................................................34
WARNING!: Spammers, Scammers, and Phishing ..................................................35
You’re Now a Googleteer, Too! ....................................................................................37

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Contents
CHAPTER 3 Managing Your Domain .......................................................................39
Trolling Your Control Panel .........................................................................................39
Driving Your Dashboard ...............................................................................................41
Domain Settings .............................................................................................................42
Account Information ..............................................................................................43
General Settings (Logos and More) ......................................................................45
Domain Names .........................................................................................................48
Adding a Domain Alias ...........................................................................................49
Setting Up Email Delivery ......................................................................................51
Adding Another Domain Alias ..............................................................................57
Updating, Waiting, and Troubleshooting ..........................................................60
A Dashing Domain .........................................................................................................62
Dominating the Dashboard .........................................................................................63
CHAPTER 4 Connecting Your Domain Users .........................................................65
Heading into the Hole ...................................................................................................65
BlackBerry Access ....................................................................................................65
More Mobile Access .................................................................................................66
A Note on Ugly Logins ............................................................................................66
Of Pretty Logos and Private Labels ......................................................................67
Of Firewalls and Heartache ...................................................................................67
Of Always Forcing HTTPS and Security ...............................................................68
Into the Email! ................................................................................................................68
Manipulating Advanced Tools .....................................................................................69
Bulk Upload Users ...................................................................................................69
Setting a Single Sign-On .........................................................................................70
Easy IMAP Email Migration ...................................................................................72
Coding GData API References ...............................................................................74
General Email Settings ..................................................................................................74
Branding Your Mail URL .........................................................................................75
Grabbing Odd Mail ..................................................................................................76
Use Your Own SMTP Server ....................................................................................76
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Contents
Vouching for IP Addresses .....................................................................................77
No Mail, Thank You! ................................................................................................77
Email Addresses ..............................................................................................................77
Alerting Abuse and Postmaster ............................................................................77
Populating Your Own Lists ....................................................................................79
Managing Your Folk .......................................................................................................81
Manipulating User Settings ...................................................................................81
Maintaining Nicknames and Lists .......................................................................82
Dealing with Problem Users ........................................................................................84
Picking on Gordon ...................................................................................................84
Suspending Gordon .................................................................................................85
Pardoning Gordon ...................................................................................................87
Creating New Users ........................................................................................................87
Adding Sarah ............................................................................................................88
Buying Sarah .............................................................................................................89
Creating Sarah ..........................................................................................................89
Confirming Sarah .....................................................................................................90
Inviting Sarah ...........................................................................................................90
Sarah in Situ ..............................................................................................................92
Bah-Ooo-Gah! Google Lockdowns and Limits .........................................................93
500 per Day Limit ....................................................................................................93
Lockdown in Sector 4 ..............................................................................................94
Problems in Sector 5 ...............................................................................................94
Lockdown in Sector 6 ..............................................................................................94
Presenting Contacts .......................................................................................................95
Priming Contacts .....................................................................................................96
Parsing Contacts ......................................................................................................96
Picking Contacts .......................................................................................................97
Prodding Contacts ...................................................................................................97
Sending from Different Accounts ...............................................................................99
Adding Account Super Powers! ............................................................................99
Including Another Email Address ........................................................................99
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