Your own email system - free and easy for anyone

Having your own email address isn't too hard for those with a bit of IT savvy - you can do anything from buiding and maintaining your own mail server to using a hosted server that still might just need a bit of configuration.
 
But I've recently discovered that there an even easier way with Google Apps (free). Anyone can set this up - even my mum (well maybe). The beauty of Google Apps is that the email part is just based on gmail - which is an industry leading robust online mail system.
 
So what do I mean by "your own email system" and why would you want it? Well basically it means you can have a custom email address like fred@darwinthompsons.com. This is far better than something like fred112@hotmail.com. Its more than just a custom address of course - here's a list of a few advantages;
 

A web based email system doesn't just exist on your PC - you can access your email anywhere you have an Internet connection

Being in the "cloud" - you don't lose all your emails, contacts etc when your computer dies or is lost/stolen etc

The gmail system also allows you to use it "offline" (ie without an internet connection)

Your email doesn't change when you change internet providers (eg from Telstra to Internode) - also gmail is normally much better to use than most ISP's webmail type services.

With google apps free - you get up to 10 users. So you can have like a family email address domain (eg fred@darwinthompsons.com, mary@darwinthompsons.com etc) - or for a small business (eg admin@smithplumbing.com)

You get other associated services with google apps to share between your users and others - like calendars, documents and contacts.

It also provides aliases.  For example your daughter might have her email address in your system as shirley@barrahunter.com but would also like to have shirl@barrahunter.com - this can be done and it would all go to the one address for shirley to see.

Google apps works great on mobile devices like android, iphones, ipads etc.  It'll sync with your calendars and contacts also.

There is a couple of "gotchas" however;

• The domain name (eg barrahunter.com) you want might be taken - and probably will be for any dictionary word (eg barramundi.com) and many names and phrases (hiddenvalley.com would be taken for instance).  So you have to be a bit creative when thinking of a name as there are still many that aren't (ok I ended up with stormpilgrim.com and that might be a bit lame).
• Did I say it was free?  Well google apps is free.. for the free edition.. which is all you need.  There is however a $10 per year fee for the domain name you register...  google look after the registration etc for you but the money actually goes to a domain name registrar.
• The paid version of google apps give you things like no advertisements around emails (the ads in gmail are very inconspicuous anyways), 25GB email (with free you get heaps anyway - 7-8GB I think)

Ok you're interested how do you go about getting google apps?  Simple..   just go to https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new and use the "I want to buy a domain name" option.  It might take you sometime to find a domain name that isn't already in use - but thats half the fun!  You can try domain names before you have to pay the $10.

You might get lucky!  Check out this one that was available still! 

If you have any problems let me know and I'll try and help.