Estate IT set up

[Novoiceleft]

Thanks for your help so far. I have watched a lot of videos !

I think I know what to do. A couple of questions outstanding.

The steps are:

Buy a Domain name. I know how to do this. But do I have to create a Company Google email account first ?

Build a Google site (it will be one page) based on the Domain name I dont know how to do this

Point the domain name to a Google drive. I know how to do this

Create Google Groups I know how to do this.

Share Google Drive folders with the Google Groups I know how to do this.

Send emails out using Google groups with links to a Google Drive Document where needed. I know how to do this

I need to be certain that no-one else will need to set up a Google account and that everyone will be able to receive the mailing and click into the document link whether they are on a phone, tablet, ipad or computer etc.

NoVoice

[Novoiceleft]

Sorry - what I mean by this ...

"Build a Google site (it will be one page) based on the Domain name I dont know how to do this"

I know how to build a site. I dont know how to give the site my Domain name

NoVoice

[Infrasonic]

https://support.google.com/domains/answ ... 6?hl=en-GB

[Infrasonic]

Also have a read through this third party domain email solution which will work with free Gmail. The people behind it are professional email admins, so they know what they are doing - but as you'll see from the documentation, it's far from simple behind the scenes...
https://www.gmailify.com/docs

https://www.gmailify.com/

Unlimited Email Addresses On Your Own Domain, With Gmail
Gmailify.com is a complete email system bringing custom domains to Gmail accounts. Without hacks.

Bring your whole company, club, or family under your domain. Everyone can receive and send directly from their own Gmail. Reliably, on the web and mobile.

$6.99 / yearly for the entire domain.

[Infrasonic]

Here's an example of a third party domain host with a UK presence that offers Google Workspaces as a package add on.
https://www.ionos.co.uk/office-solution ... e#packages

[mc2fool]

I need to be certain that no-one else will need to set up a Google account and that everyone will be able to receive the mailing and click into the document link whether they are on a phone, tablet, ipad or computer etc.

If you don't have them already (or want more just for testing) create yourself Outlook and Yahoo Mail accounts, sign them up to your Google Group and use the group as if the three of you were the real deal (you as "admin" and the Outlook and Yahoo Mail addresses as "residents").

Then you can play to your heart's content with how it all works, and have the experience as an "end user" and not just as the administrator, for whom some things may work differently 'cos they have more capabilities/permissions than end users will. Indeed, I'd suggest that you keep at least one of those permanently, so you always have an "end user" account.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/email-and-calendar-software-microsoft-outlook
https://login.yahoo.com/account/create

Other non-Google free email providers are available....

[Novoiceleft]

Thanks everyone. I have gone the Google route and made some progress

- bought a domain name via a Google-linked process
- got a Google test business account for £6/year in the Company name - I have a 2 week free trial period
- created a Google Workspace - in the company name
- Created a Google Drive - in the company name
- Set up a couple of test users in Outlook and Yahoo
- Added the test users to my site
- Created a Google Group for the test users

So far so good.

One problem is that I can't link the Workspace to the Domain name. That is only possible when the Account becomes Paid, not Test

The other problem is more worrying. I seem only to be able to add Users to my site by creating a mandatory new Google email address User@Site.co.uk. Their current email (such as Outlook, iCLoud etc) is a Secondary email. Initial Login instructions are always sent to the new Google Address, and the User is not a site member until they have Activated their account by resetting the password.

As I said, our users will have NO CLUE how to create and manage a new Google Account. It would be a painful one-off process, but I could do it for all 25 of them at my own terminal. Their 25 Google email accounts would then sit there unused - but that's OK.

The only thing I need to achieve is to be able to send an email (as a Group email) to all 25 residents that uses their current (Secondary) email addresses, possibly containing a link to an Acrobat file in the Google Drive.

But I can't fathom out how to build that by using what Google is calling their "Secondary Email Addresses". Or maybe you can build a mailing list using outside emails, without having to be a site member ??

TIA

NoVoice

[mc2fool]

The other problem is more worrying. I seem only to be able to add Users to my site by creating a mandatory new Google email address User@Site.co.uk. Their current email (such as Outlook, iCLoud etc) is a Secondary email. Initial Login instructions are always sent to the new Google Address, and the User is not a site member until they have Activated their account by resetting the password.

As I said, our users will have NO CLUE how to create and manage a new Google Account. It would be a painful one-off process, but I could do it for all 25 of them at my own terminal. Their 25 Google email accounts would then sit there unused - but that's OK.

The only thing I need to achieve is to be able to send an email (as a Group email) to all 25 residents that uses their current (Secondary) email addresses, possibly containing a link to an Acrobat file in the Google Drive.

But I can't fathom out how to build that by using what Google is calling their "Secondary Email Addresses". Or maybe you can build a mailing list using outside emails, without having to be a site member ??

We don't have a site to go alongside our (still existing but now long disused) Google Group but we absolutely didn't need members to sign up to a Google address, and I just checked that to be sure and managed to sign up (by invitation and acceptance) one of my myriad email addresses that has no association with any Google address without any issues. That's why I suggested Google Groups in the first place!

I can see that (maybe) you'd need some/all of the directors to do so, but it's not clear to me why you need to sign up the hoi polloi to the site and why you can't just sign them up to the group. Can you not just go into the group, under your "owner" account, and click on "People" on the left and then "Add members" at the top and stick in any no-Google-association-at-all address(es)?

[Novoiceleft]

That's all good to know, and that would be exactly the right solutions for the hoi polloi and Directors.

I'll try that. I'm still learning - hope it works.

NoVoice

[Infrasonic]

Just be aware that the Google domains (hosting) bit has changed recently as Google sold it to Squarespace - there's alerts to that effect all over their google domains links.

Soooo - if you go through a third party host like Ionos or Google/Squarespace just watch out for any hikes in the domain portion of future bills as you may well find it's discounted for the first month / year and then ramps up significantly.

MS did a similar thing by giving GoDaddy the rights to their domain hosting with MS365 non business plans and there was a load of moaning about the subsequent annual charges.

There was a thread on here a while back with a workaround for the MS/GoDaddy issue but it ended up being a bit of a nightmare to sort out correctly so going off piste without a good understanding of hosting + DNS/TXT issues is probably best avoided...

[Novoiceleft]

Hi everyone I am back again !

As an update, its going well so far. Thank you for all your help.

- I have a Company website, based on a Google worspace and domain name, with our Custom URL applied
- Board members have dedicated email addresses
- Residents still using their own personal email addresses
- Have used a couple of Forms (e.g. residents can complete a Maintenance request form, which goes onto Google Sheet, visible to everyone)
- I have a shared Google Drive in which I have now consolidated all the historic documents for the Company (for the first time)
- One Group (the Board) which seems to be working. I'm shortyly going to create other groups for the estate's sub-areas

Its been a steep learning curve.

I'm stuck on the last step. Help please ! I can't figure out the jargon

My Shared drive is great but it has a random url and I want it to have a custom url i.e. drive.OURNAME.co.uk

I seem to have set up this custom URL successfully and it exists in a list as a CNAME connected to ghs.googlehosted.com

How to I get this Custom URL applied as the URL of my shared drive ??

Seems such small thing to do - but all the Help notes are too difficult to understand.

NoVoice

[mc2fool]

My Shared drive is great but it has a random url and I want it to have a custom url i.e. drive.OURNAME.co.uk

I seem to have set up this custom URL successfully and it exists in a list as a CNAME connected to ghs.googlehosted.com

How to I get this Custom URL applied as the URL of my shared drive ??

Seems such small thing to do - but all the Help notes are too difficult to understand.

A random each time url, or a url that was seemingly randomly generated once but is constant and forever?

If you've found the solution but can't understand it, give us a link to that help and we'll see if we can figure it...

[Novoiceleft]

I have a Shared drive with a url that is "random" but does not change.

Ive done the following part OK

https://support.google.com/a/answer/472 ... ur-website

So I now have an entry in a Table called Custom Records in which

Host name = drive.XXXXX.co.uk Type = CNAME TTL = 1 Hour Data = ghs.googlehosted.com

This means nothing to me. XXXX is my org name

the solution is something to do with this

https://support.google.com/a/answer/610 ... 9451168-NA

All I want to do is replace the random name of my Shared drive with "drive.XXXXX.co.uk"

NoVoice

[Novoiceleft]

Hi All

I think i have sorted it with the help of Google chat and online shared screen help - who were superb, by the way.

Google Drive is a Service and can have a custom url. The custom url I had created for the Shared drive, did actually work by redirecting you - but still shows its "random" url once you are in it.

Google Shared Drive is a feature of Google Drive and cannot have a custom url.

Anyone that has a Google Account has a Google Drive. All I have done is added a Shared Drive, which will appear on the lefthand menu of their Google Drive window.

Every day is a school day

NoVoice

[Infrasonic]

I did wonder when you posted initially whether it was a deliberate Google security measure to make the shared drive facility less visible to potential hackers via a randomised URL.

For any sensitive documents I tend to use time restricted access and/or passwords for the URL links on cloud shares just to make sure only the people I intended to have access do...

Passwords sent out via another E2EE medium like Signal / WhatsApp or SMS rather than email.

[Novoiceleft]

Hello - I'm back again.

I'm about 90% there, I think.

I dont fully understand access settings. All help appreciated.

What I now have is a Google site with its own domain name, about 4 Users with email addresses based on that name, and a Google Shared Drive with some documents in. I guess that is what Google calls my "Organisation."

So there are about 25 residents that have a random selection of computers, tablets phones, a random selection ofemail addresses (icloud, yahoo, btinternet etc), and random browsers (safari, Chrome etc). Most have very poor IT skills.

I have set up various Groups and sub-Groups of email addresses - one of which is the whole Estate.

Now - what do I do if I want Shareholders to see the Board Minutes document via the website?

The Minutes are a document in my Shared Drive.
I have made it a restricted document - to the Google group called Shareholders - View Only. This group is the 4 Users plus 21 others with randon email addresses.

Right now the Google Site is Public (I cant find a way to limit it to my Estate Google Group - and I do not want people to have to create logins etc)
I have a "Notices" page on my Google Site with a link to the Minutes Document.

I thought that should be fine. But now I've received "Request for Access" emails from some people. As an example, a request from a Google Account I did not know about, from someone in the Group with a BT email address.

I'm guessing the problem is that, whilst I do know people's email address, I don't know what account they are browsing on?

I could just lift all restrictions - but I think I am obliged to control it to Shareholders only.

Struggling

NoVoice

[mc2fool]

Now - what do I do if I want Shareholders to see the Board Minutes document via the website?

The Minutes are a document in my Shared Drive.
I have made it a restricted document - to the Google group called Shareholders - View Only. This group is the 4 Users plus 21 others with randon email addresses.

Right now the Google Site is Public (I cant find a way to limit it to my Estate Google Group - and I do not want people to have to create logins etc)
I have a "Notices" page on my Google Site with a link to the Minutes Document.

I thought that should be fine. But now I've received "Request for Access" emails from some people. As an example, a request from a Google Account I did not know about, from someone in the Group with a BT email address.

I'm guessing the problem is that, whilst I do know people's email address, I don't know what account they are browsing on?

Hmmm, well I don't know the answer to the question but as it happens I very recently had the same experience from a user's end, which was a little peculiar but worked out so I'll recount that....

I'd had a phone conversation with Citizens Advice (on a matter that's irrelevant here) and at the end of it asked if they could email me a summary of what we'd discussed, and was told yes but it had to be done by some other dept and would take a few days and, indeed, a few days later, yesterday in fact, I received, at an email address I'd specifically set up for communications with them (cab@mydomain), two emails at the same time.

The first was from Fred Bloggs (via Google Drive) <drive-shares-noreply@google.com> (not their real name ) and said:

Fred Bloggs shared a folder

Fred Bloggs (fred.bloggs@citizensadvice.org.uk) added you as a viewer. Verify your email address to view this shared folder securely. You will need to verify your email address every 7 days. Learn more

Dear mc2fool,

Please find the information you recently requested from the Citizens Advice Consumer Service.

Kind regards, Fred...

And went on to give an Open button. (Note, the Learn more link above is the real one, click it!) However, clicking on the Open button took me to a page that looked like (or very similar to) this which sounds like what your users are getting and then submitting.

I didn't submit that but instead went on to read the second email, which was from Individual Rights <individualrights@citizensadvice.org.uk> and said:

Dear mc2fool

Thank you for your recent request for information...
:
:
We will give you temporary access to a Google drive folder. You will have access for one month, if you need it for longer than this, please let us know. You can download your document from <link>.

And on clicking on that <link> I got a page asking for a verification code it said it had sent to my address (cab@mydomain) to verify that address, which it had and I duly entered, and at that point it showed me a Google drive folder with a single PDF in it which contained the info I requested and could download.

Clicking now on either the Open button in the first email or the <link> in the second takes me straight to that folder without any other palaver, and this is all with and to the cab@mydomain address, which is not registered with Google in any other way.

So, what all that tells you is that what you want can be done although I'm not sure how you do it or why I had the (somewhat confusing) first email when the second worked fine and didn't need the "request access".

[Novoiceleft]

I just wanted to pop back on here to thank everyone for your help on this topic. Quite a few brains and quite a few posts were involved.

But it has all worked out really well ...

I'm not any kind of IT hobbyist and I was on a steep learning curve - but its all now up and running. "Going Google" was a great recommendation.

We've now got a simple website, a shared document drive with different protection levels (Board, Shareholders, Residents etc) and the email groups are working fine. We've even got a Maintenance Request form which drives a rolling maintenance To-Do list.

One of the problems I've had is that some people could not initially access the web pages because their browser account is on a different email address to their email account. But, if they clicked the "request access" button, I added the additional email account and all is fixed.

Thanks again !!

NoVoice