Some questions on using Google Apps for Mail and SMTP for WordPress

Hi guys,

I really need some help from someone who actually uses Google Apps for their email on a WP site.

I have a WordPress/ BuddyPress site that I am moving to a dedicated server and I want to move my email from being hosted on the server, to being hosted on google Apps Mail.

I’ve set up a Google Apps account (which you now have to pay for on a PER USER basis) and I have set the main email address to [email protected]

I am using Nicknames for other email addresses my site uses to catch all incoming email to those.

Now the part that I can’t get my head around is the SMTP part.

I know to use SMTP that I have to install an SMTP plugin (or can I just set up some other files without a plugin?).

Does using SMTP totally cut out the server you are hosting on to send email?

Also, many of these SMTP plugins allow you to specify a from name and email address.

My site runs a couple of plugins that send email out from the site under different addresses, so I have the default emails for notifications etc going out under [email protected], but other plugins use addresses such as [email protected] and [email protected]

Will email still be sent under these addresses, or will the address specified in the SMTP plugin take over all of them?

Sorry to sound like such a noob, but this whole email thing seems to be the most complex thing I have tried to get my head around in a long time!

Any advice in plain English would be amazing!

Thanks in advance!

Ross ??