How to migrate from Gmail to Google Apps for free and take your messages with you

Step 1: Be sure you can edit the MX records of your domain name

You'll have to edit your domain's MX records point to Google's servers to get Google Apps to work, so make sure you can do that first.

MX records are addresses that point to your email server -- in this case, to Google's servers. When you send an email to a particular address, the MX record is a signpost that tells the email exactly where to go so that it will get delivered to your inbox -- like a postcode tells the postie where to drop your letters through your door.

If you're already hosting your domain with a hosting company, chances are that you can edit the MX records using its control panel. We'll tell you what to type in step 3.

But some hosts don't let you edit the MX records, or they want you to use IP addresses, when Google Apps only provides URLs. Or maybe you don't have a Web-hosting company at all and your domain is just floating around the Interwebs.

In this case, go to ugly-but-good Zoneedit and sign up for a free account. You can manage all the gory details of up to five domain names for free here. To use Zoneedit, you have to change the name servers of your domain name to Zoneedit name servers -- it will walk you through the steps when you add a new zone. As well as setting your email to be handled by Google Apps, you can point your Web site to your hosting company's servers or to a free Web site such as a Wordpress blog.

If you change your name servers to point to Zoneedit, or anywhere else, it can take a long while for the changes to go through. Use a whois service to make sure that your domain is using the right name servers before you continue, otherwise your changes won't have any effect and it'll all end in tears.