Blogger and Google App hosting at naked domain using 1&1

Question

My web hosting is through 1&1.com. I'm trying to set up both blogger and Google Apps mail at the naked domain.

I was able to get blogger set up on the www. version of the site by simply creating a CNAME record which points to ghs.google.com. The naked domain is also pointing to ghs.google.com, creating a symmetric configuration. Blogger has the domain defined with www., and the checkbox which chooses if to redirect naked domain to www. is checked.

Now when I try to set up the MX records for Google apps at 1&1, it doesn't let me. When you go in to the DNS settings, you can choose between DNS or CNAME. When you choose DNS, it allows you to set a single A record, and the MX records. However, if you choose to use a CNAME (like I did), it will not allow you to set any MX records.

I'll try my best to describe the options available on 1&1 using a tree:

• General settings =
  • {CNAME}
    • Alias = [server]
  • {DNS}
    • Name server =
      • {My name server}
        • Primary Name Server = [server]
        • Secondary Name Server =
          • {My Secondary Name Server}
            • 1st secondary name server = [server]
            • 2nd secondary name server = [server]
            • 3rd secondary name server = [server]
          • {1&1 Name Server}
      • {1&1 name server}
        • IP address (A record) =
          • {1&1 IP Address}
          • {Other IP address}
            • [ip-address]
        • Mail server (MX record) =
          • {1&1 mail server}
          • {Other mail server}
            • MX 1 / Prio = [mx-record]
            • MX 2 / Prio = [mx-record]
            • Further backups =
              • {My Mail Exchanger}
                • MX 3 / Prio = [mx-record]
                • MX 4 / Prio = [mx-record]
              • {Backup mail exchanger}

For example, in General settings you can choose either CNAME or DNS. If you choose CNAME you will see the Alias field. The Alias field takes a [server] value (e.g. example.com). Another example, if you choose Name server = 1&1 name server, you will see all the options listed underneath it (IP address (A record) and Mail server (MX record)), but not the options underneath My name server.

Legend:

• [server]: requires a server [is it more accurate to call this domain?] (e.g. example.com).
• [ip-address]: requires a set of 4 numbers (i.e. a valid ip). So, a domain such as example.com will not work.
• [mx-record]: takes in a [server] and an integer priority.

You will notice that when General settings = CNAME, it doesn't have any MX record fields available. Is this a shortcoming of 1&1, or can you never have a CNAME record with MX records defined?

Is there any way to do what I'm trying to do?

Requirements:

• Blogger blog hosted at www. or naked domain (I have no preference).
• The other domain will redirect to the other one (e.g. www. will redirect to naked domain, or vice versa).
• Mail uses Google Apps at naked domain (e.g. [email protected]).
• It should be reliable and SEO friendly. I know I can set up a single A record to point to one of Google's IP addresses (instead of ghs.google.com), but then I don't get the 4 server redundancy, meaning if a single server goes down, my site also goes down.

Answer 1

See this question and my answer over at ServerFault.com. When you have a CNAME, you cannot have other records of different types on the same hostname. This isn't a limitation of 1&1, it's a limitation of DNS itself.

Answer 2

You should not create a CNAME record to the naked domain (without the 'www'). All you need to do is forward or redirect it to your 'www' address so that both URLs will point to your blog. You can then edit the MX record of your domain name to Google Apps