THE FIRST EMAILS ARRIVE: COMPLETING THE MIGRATION
From planning to doing—what happened when I actually moved my domain to Proton
THE “DAVOS” MOMENT
I published the first post yesterday—the mapping, the planning, the initial migrations. Gmail and Outlook had been synced to Proton via IMAP. The infrastructure was documented. The next steps were clear.
Then I thought: why wait?
Once you’re moving, momentum matters. Hesitation creates resistance. And frankly, the timing felt right. This was all happening during Davos, and I found myself thinking about Christine Lagarde walking out of the gala dinner during the US Trade Secretary’s speech. A quiet exit. A statement through action, not words.
So I kept going.
PROTON BUSINESS: THE FULL SUITE
The decision to upgrade to Proton Business wasn’t planned. I’d been testing the basic email migration, but then I saw what the Business plan included: email, calendar, drive, VPN, password manager—the entire suite. And crucially, they had Docs and Sheets.
Not a complete replacement for Office, but potentially enough for my internal work. At €13/month for everything, it was less than I was paying Microsoft just for email and Office separately.
I upgraded.
Now I had the infrastructure. Next: actually move the domain.
CONFIGURING THE DOMAIN: RIGOROUS AND METHODICAL
The process took about an hour, stretched across the day between business owner duties and mama duties—distractions that pulled me away at key moments. But the configuration itself wasn’t confusing. Proton’s interface is intuitive. Gandi’s DNS console is clear.
What it required was rigor. Methodology. Reading everything before proceeding.
The steps:
Add the domain in Proton
Create the email addresses that are currently used
Configure DNS records at Gandi: MX (mail exchange), SPF (sender authentication), DKIM (signature), DMARC (policy)
Wait for propagation
Simple in theory. Precise in execution.
THE ERROR: A MISSING DOT
But there was a problem.
The MX record in Proton’s interface stayed red. Everything else turned green—SPF, DKIM, DMARC—but the MX wouldn’t verify.
I went back and forth between Gandi and Proton, checking settings, re-entering values. Something was wrong, but I couldn’t see it.
Then I took a screenshot of the Gandi DNS console and shared it with Claude.
The error: a missing dot at the end of the MX hostname.
In DNS, mail.protonmail.ch and mail.protonmail.ch. are different things. Without the final dot, Gandi interpreted my entry as relative to my domain, turning it into mail.protonmail.ch.lacolmenadesign.com—which doesn’t exist.
With the dot, it’s absolute: mail.protonmail.ch stays mail.protonmail.ch.
I added the dot. Saved. Waited.
THE ANXIOUS WAIT
DNS propagation can take hours. Sometimes a day. The records spread across servers worldwide, replacing old information with new.
During this time, I compulsively refreshed MXToolbox.com, checking whether the correct MX records had propagated. Over and over.
The waiting was a bit anxiogenic. Had I done it right? Would anything break?
Then, slowly, the records updated. MXToolbox showed the correct Proton servers. I refreshed Proton’s domain settings.
Green. All green.
“Your MX record is now pointing to Proton.”
A small step for internet history. A giant leap for me.
THE FIRST EMAIL
I sent a test email from Gmail to bea@lacolmenadesign.com.
Nothing in Outlook. Nothing in the old system.
Then it appeared in Proton.
Not the test email—something else. A real email. A newsletter from Creative Review, arriving on my new Swiss infrastructure.
Relief. Pride. A strange, quiet satisfaction.
It worked. Not theoretically. Actually.
WHAT I LEARNED
Anyone Can Do This
The technical barrier isn’t as high as it feels. What it requires:
Patience: DNS takes time. You can’t rush propagation.
Concentration: Small details matter (like that final dot).
Rigor: Read carefully. Follow the steps. Don’t skip verification.
We panic in front of technology. We let ourselves feel overwhelmed, powerless, dependent. But often, it’s just a process. And processes can be followed.
AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement
Claude helped me spot the DNS error through the screenshot. That’s exactly what AI should do: assist with precision tasks, catch details a human eye might miss, provide context when you’re stuck.
Not to do the work for you. To help you do it yourself.
The Difference Between Planning and Doing
Yesterday’s post was about mapping—seeing the landscape, understanding dependencies. Today was about crossing the terrain.
Planning shows you the path. Doing shows you the friction. The anxiety of waiting. The frustration of small errors. The satisfaction when it works.
Both are necessary. But only one creates change.
WHERE I AM NOW
My professional email infrastructure runs entirely on Swiss servers now. End-to-end encrypted. Privacy-first. No data mining.
Gmail is forwarded to Proton, filtered automatically so personal emails stay organized.
Proton Business gives me not just email, but calendar, drive, VPN, password manager—a complete alternative ecosystem, for less than I was paying Microsoft and Google combined.
Monthly cost before: ~€50-70 (Microsoft 365, Dropbox, various subscriptions)
Monthly cost now: €13 (Proton Business)
Savings: ~€37-57/month, or ~€440-680/year
But the real shift isn’t financial. It’s capacity. The belief that I can actually change the systems I depend on. That sovereignty isn’t abstract—it’s concrete, technical, achievable.
WHAT COMES NEXT
Now I need to live with this for a few weeks. See what it actually changes day-to-day. Whether the workflow is smoother or more difficult. Whether the peace of mind is real or just initial satisfaction.
The mapping is complete. The first migration is done. The infrastructure is operational.
Next: Adobe. Google Search. The harder dependencies.
But for now, I’m receiving emails on Swiss servers. And that small, technical fact feels like something larger.