That Computer Guy

I am, and as some of my clients will agree, a bit of a Google tragic – I do like their stuff.

In my defence though, I have to say that’s it’s purely for the simplicity and usefulness of their products. You have a problem, they solve it. You have a problem you didn’t know you had? Chances are they’ve got that covered too. And into this latter group falls a new feature in Google’s email client – Gmail.

Gmail has been a staple for me for a while now, and I’m hooked on that you can centralise all of your email domains to it. Being a mobile worker and yet still able to access any of my email addresses in one place is a golden goal!

What I’d overlooked until recently though was that users of some email software, and in particular Microsoft Outlook, would see my emails as coming from “myaddress@gmail.com on behalf of myemail@mydomain.net”. Now, given my rant on why you should get your business a domain name, this was not ideal, to say the least!

Today, the “Big G” ticks off that box by introducing the ability to set which outgoing mail server you want to use for your mail – your domain server or Google’s server. Here’s how the process looks without this feature:

Image: Google

And here’s how it works after enabling:

Image: Google

For mobile workers or those with multiple email addresses like myself, this means I can log on to my Gmail wherever I happen to be, and still know that emails to my clients appear as if they are from my domain address, regardless of the software they are using.

Here’s how to set up “Send mail from another address without on behalf of” in Gmail:

Firstly, you’ll need your email domain details. You can usually find these on your ISP’s website, in a welcome letter, or on your website’s control panel (cpanel or similar). Once you have these, log in to your Gmail account and look for “Settings” towards the top right hand corner.

Select the “Accounts” tab:

And then click on “Edit Info” on the right:

If the settings you have in the next screen are as you want, click “Next Step”

Hit the radio button for “Send through your ‘domainname’ SMTP servers…” and enter the details you gathered previously. Depending on your settings, you may need to tick the checkbox to always use a secure connection. Click “Save Changes” and you’re all done!

As this is my first tutorial here on the TCG blog, I’d be interested to know if you found it useful? Did you like it? Hate it? Please let me know in the comments – it’s only going to make the posts better!

Following the lead of a similar initiative during the pre-launch of Windows Vista, details of Windows 7′s Upgrade Option scheme have now been officially released. Essentially, the program is a free ticket upgrade for those buying an eligible PC or laptop between June 26, 2009 and January 31 2010 to upgrade from the version of Vista that comes pre-installed to an equivalent version of Windows 7.

Personally I had hoped that the scheme would have been announced on the same day as the release date was published. This would have allowed those of us in Australia a little more time to run to our local computer store and buy up, and still be able to claim the small business tax break 50% deduction in this year’s return. But as every cloud has a silver lining, the tax break now runs until December 31, meaning you can claim your deduction on next year’s return instead…

(By the way, if you haven’t heard about the ATO’s Small Business Tax Break package yet, give your accountant a call)

In other Windows 7 news – it looks like there’s a bit of a stoush brewing about the pricing here in Australia: US pricing has been announced at a rate that is some way below AU pricing, even allowing for (generous) currency changes.

Being as this is only likely to affect you if buying the software outright, and that the majority of purchasers will be exposed to it through a new PC or notebook anyway, I wouldn’t be holding my breath for Microsoft to change its decision. Still, bit of a nasty sideswipe though, given as it’s the same product.

Do you think you’ll be upgrading to Windows 7? Or are you over the hype already? Let me know in the comments…