DIY

For many years I’ve been an ardent supporter of the “do it yourself” approach for server management. I used to run all of my websites and mail servers from my personal DSL line using a computer in my spare bedroom. Earlier this year, I finally got fed up tending to the hardware and purchases a VPS account at TekTonic. This has served me better than I expected, and I’ve felt extremely liberated not having to fuss with hardware.

I’m growing increasingly tired, now, of managing my mail services. It’s no longer interesting to me to keep up with the latest anti-span tactics, or to restart the mail services when they fail for whatever reason. As such, I’m seriously considering letting someone else manage my email services for me.

I know several people who use – and rave about – webmail.us. I’m comfortable paying for someone else’ expertise in email management, so I’m willing to fork over a couple bucks a month for a reliable email system I don’t need to babysit.

I also see that Google for Domains is available to me, and for free. I’m not entirely keen on the idea of letting Google hold all of my email (plus all my family members’ emails), but I’m not so opposed to that idea as to rule out Google altogether.

A quick skim of some of the reviews of Google For Domains suggests that it should be satisfactory for my needs, and will offer a number of additional benefits which may or may not be useful to the family (shared calendar, for example). I think I might give it a shot…