How to Setup DNS for Google Apps Mail on CloudFlare
What? You’re not using CloudFlare? It’s really easy to get yourself setup and I can go on-and-on about why you should – in fact, I do in this post on why you should use CloudFlare. At this point, let’s assume you’ve joined the rest of us powering our sites through CloudFlare. Well by now, your DNS has been taken over and you may want to setup Google Apps email. If so, here are instructions on how to properly setup your DNS entries to play nice together.
There are 2 types of entries to configure / add to your DNS zone. Google Apps does a good job of walking you through this, and so does this CloudFlare knowledgebase. entry, but I find sometimes seeing it visually clears up any doubts. After all, we want to get it right the first time. So here’s what we’re going to add as instructed by Google Apps:
Firstly, to setup Google Apps email, you will need to enter a CNAME entry to you DNS zone:
| Host Name/Alias | Value/Destination |
|---|---|
| Your URL prefix Example: mail |
ghs.google.com |
When you setup this entry, be sure to deactivate CloudFlare from handling traffic on this entry. This means the cloud icon should be grayed out, not active (orange). There’s no need for CloudFlare to handle your mail as that’s not its purpose.
Next, Google Apps email requires that you add the following 5 MX entries to your DNS. These are necessary to ensure your email flows through to/from Google’s mail servers.
| Priority | Mail server |
|---|---|
| 1 | ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM |
| 5 | ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM |
| 5 | ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM |
| 10 | ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM |
| 10 | ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM |
If you did all that correctly, your CloudFlare DNS entries will look like this:
Don’t forget to change yourdomain.com to your real domain URL. If you’ve completed these steps, you can now wait for the internet to propagate these DNS changes which can take anywhere from 1 hour to 48 hours. So get a drink, write something worthwhile, and check back later. If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I’ll do my best to help.
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ryan
May 17, 2012 at 1:08 PM
Great page really cleared alot up for me thanks!
WPcharlie
May 17, 2012 at 1:16 PM
Glad it did Ryan. Cheers!
shoppinglk
June 24, 2012 at 7:42 AM
thanks you thank you thank you….i was tired with google apps official guide and my hosting support guide…now everything fine
WPcharlie
June 24, 2012 at 2:18 PM
No problem. Glad you found it useful. I’m not a big fan of Google’s guide either. It’s not as clear as it should be, especially for non tech-savvy folks or beginners. Al the best.
Nick
September 7, 2012 at 9:42 PM
You’re a lifesaver — I’ve been trying to get Google Apps up and running forever with no luck… Even Hostgator’s support couldn’t figure it out. Then I started using CloudFlare, followed the steps in this post and now everything’s up and running perfectly.
I was just forgetting to add ghs.google.com!
Great post
WPsite.net
September 10, 2012 at 2:16 AM
Glad I can be of assistance Nick. Hopefully, you are all set now. Cheers.
Uzaa
September 14, 2012 at 5:48 AM
Thank you very much! I was searching it all over the place! :)
Great TUT!
Cheers!
WPsite.net
September 15, 2012 at 9:02 PM
No problem Uzaa – Glad you liked it.
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Shaun Preece
November 10, 2012 at 8:44 AM
Excellent advice Charlie, far outweighs any of the ‘official’ guides out there!
WPsite.net
November 10, 2012 at 2:58 PM
Thanks Shaun. Glad it was useful.
James
December 1, 2012 at 9:26 AM
Thanks a lot for this.
I recently started using cloudflare then signed up for google apps. I had set my MX records at my host. Didnt realise I would have to set them in cloudflare.
Struggled to figure out this for days. then I found your post and fixed it in an hour.
Thanks so much!!
May I link to this post from my blog to help out others?
WPsite.net
December 1, 2012 at 4:43 PM
Hi James – Happy to hear this post helped you solve your problem. Feel free to link to this post from your blog. Appreciate the kudos!
Emily
December 8, 2012 at 1:52 PM
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January 22, 2013 at 8:09 PM
Thanks a lot for spending free time in order to create “How to Setup DNS
for Google Apps Mail on CloudFlare – WPsite.
net”. Thanks once again ,Tommy
Chathuranga
January 28, 2013 at 9:18 AM
I don’t know how to thanks you. I have purchased my domain form Google apps and used on blogger, then move the the WP and used Bluehost. Yesterday hole day, I edited my DNS settings for use Google apps gmail with my domain. Not success. Thanks to your method, now i can again use Google apps. Many many thanks friend.
WPsite.net
February 4, 2013 at 9:11 AM
Glad you benefited from the post @Chathuranga. All the best.
Kamini Dixit
February 28, 2013 at 3:27 PM
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March 11, 2013 at 3:16 AM
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home theater system
March 12, 2013 at 9:25 PM
After I initially left a comment I seem to
have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now
on every time a comment is added I recieve four emails with
the same comment. Perhaps there is a means you can remove me from that service?
Appreciate it!
WPsite.net
March 20, 2013 at 8:05 AM
I’ll look into it Phillip and get you removed. Thanks for letting me know.
Steve Popoola
May 2, 2013 at 5:16 AM
I had an issue setting up Google Apps with my Cloudflare powered website. I moved my website from a shared account to my own VPS setup and all of a sudden I was no longer receiving emails. Going through the steps here helped me resolve the issue, now I am sorted!
Thank you!
Steve