How could I do this better? (Domain names stuff)

[Ham]

I can see what I have done, but > two years down the line, I can't be sure exactly why. I'm sure there was a good reason at the time.

Mrs Ham, she of the heavily padded quilted breastplate, is chair of a local group. We revamped the website on Squarespace who host the domain, marshquilters.org

Somewhere along the way someone started a marshquilters@gmail account access to which is now lost. I therefore set up a marshquilters<number>@gmail

In order to set up email, I then pointed the MX record to "my" server (I have a full featured server running in TSOhosts, that I use to host a number of domains). I configure my server to accept the marshquilters.org mail, and set up a forward rule to push everything to the marshquilters<number>@gmail

DNS Record

Host    Type Priority   Data
@
A        N/A               198.185.159.144
@
A        N/A               198.185.159.145
@
A        N/A                198.49.23.144
@
A        N/A                198.49.23.145

(above are Squarespace)

www
CNAME N/A              ext-sq.squarespace.com

Custom Records
@
MX      10                hubble.servers.prgn.misp.co.uk.  << My server


Now, this works, I think I did it so that I could set gmail to send mail from the marshquilters.org, as I couldn't see any other way to get gmail to accept the .org mail. I don't think I can point hte MX straight at Google - does anyone know different or have a more elegant solution?

[Lightning Phil]

I’d imagine you can set the forward rule in the control panel for square space.   Most of the providers allow to set up an email address on the domain as a forwarding.

[Ham]

MX      10                hubble.servers.prgn.misp.co.uk.  << My server

Bearing in mind that I am hoping someone will tell me where I'm going wrong, you don't get email with Squarespace unless you pay another £6/month. Instead I use the MX record to tell mail to go to "my" server - I don't think I can tell it to go to Gmail if I'm not hosting with Google. My server says, yes, I'll have that, and now I'll forward a copy to gmail.

[Kim]

Yeah, you need something to receive the email for the domain, even if it's just forwarding.  Conceivably you might find a better web/DNS hosting deal that includes forwarding.

[Ham]

The most important thing choosing the web host was ease of use and maintenance for the website, given the cohort, which was why Squarespace. Cost is also a factor, SqSp does well on that, too. While Mrs Ham is unlikely to disassociate herself from the group and I'm likely to continue to maintain it pro tem, I'd forgotten about the kludge. Contemplating retirement I was thinking I could lose the £100/year for a server I don't really use, but then saw this....

As it happens the legacy hosting plan I'm on is quite good in the flexibility stakes with unlimited: subdomains, addon domains, email accounts, aliases, responders & forwarders along with 50Gb of bandwidth. It dates back to a time (more than 25 years ago) when I had clients and annoying people like them I could sell stuff to, but just because "it's useful" doesn't mean it makes economic sense.

[AuldThumper]

I see you don't list an email address on the site, just a contact form. Do you know if insiders communicate directly to <whatever>@marshquilters.org or does all traffic come through the contract form?

The answer to that probably changes any potential solutions

If everything comes from the contact us form you should just be able to edit the "whatever SqSp's equivalent of the mailto: field is" to point directly at the Gmail address. I don't think people would be freaked out to get a reply from eg marshquilters_staff@gmail.com when dealing with what's obviously a small group. Truth be told I doubt many people would even notice it wasn't from me.org
**NB
I've never run a site on SqSp, it's not impossible google would take offense at this approach

If people are emailing directly to mq.org then the obvious solution is to pay SqSp for email and tell the club they need to pony up. That way everything club related is handled through a single interface and can be passed on when required. Worst (ie inevitable) case you decommission your server pay the SqSp mail fee and save ~30 quid a year
Alternatively you could set up your current system to auto respond with a "please be aware this email is changing to whatever@gmail.com please update your records" if the mail didn't come from mq.org then shut down the forwarder after whatever seems a suitable time
If you're dealing with a small group of friends this is likely to work, an international mailing list of thousands will be more fraught

[Ham]

Unfortunately the central email *admin@" is used widely for communication,  replacing the previous random emails with a task ID (and the cost of the Squarespace mail is £72 / year )

Possibly way forward might be to see if the original gmail account can be ressurected - it isn't an active account, but shows as "unavailable" if you try to register it.

[AuldThumper]

I don't see how reviving the old Gmail account helps much as you still need a piggy in the middle server to redirect admin@ mail to it now that people are accustomed to that address

If a sqsp based website is a must then your options are limited as I see it
1) Continue as is paying for SqSp and your piggy in the middle server (PITM)*

B) Pay SqSp their blood money to host admin@ email. This is what most would consider the proper way. Sure you pay an extra £72 but you no longer need your £100 pa redirect server providing ~£30 pa saving worst case

iii) You wean people off the admin@ address using the PITM server to autorespond with a change of address message. At that point it likely doesn't matter what the new email address is as long as replies continue (although I'd try to avoid gainsixinches@snakeoil.com scammy sounding options). At the appropriate juncture, in due course, in the fullness of time, the mail forwarding server can be shut down

*The PITM server could be made physical using low power hardware that, for eg the club chair, must connected to the internet.
It's an awful bodge though and sure to result in an IT faeces flabellum interface sooner rather than later

[Ham]

Just for the record, way forward was to pay squarespace for google desktop, solving all problems.