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How to Create an SPF Record to Authorise Arrowmail's Servers to
send email on behalf of your Internet Domain
What is SPF?
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an initiative to fight spam by identifying
emails that claim to have been sent from a particular email address when, in
fact, the From address has been forged.
The SPF system uses special DNS records that can only be created by the owner of
an Internet Domain and which specifically list the servers that are authorised
to send emails from that domain.
An email that is being sent from a server not on this authorised list is
therefore a forgery and can be refused or deleted.
The SPF system isn't perfect and hasn't been adopted universally, so refusing
emails based on a failed SPF record check would result in many genuine emails
being lost.
However, it's now quite common for email systems that use a
scoring system, based on several factors to determine if an email is spam, to use an SPF pass or failure to adjust an
email's spam score.
We therefore
strongly recommend that if you are sending out emails via our servers,
you create an SPF record authorising them to send emails for your domain.
Even if you don't use Arrowmail to send your emails, it's still worth creating
an SPF record to authorise your out-going email servers. If your in-house server
sends emails directly, it would still benefit from having an SPF record.
What type of DNS Record do I need to Create?
The DNS system has different types of record that can be created, such as
A, MX, CNAME and PTR records.
Originally, SPF information was
recorded in a TXT record as this was a pre-existing general purpose record type.
More recently a new type of record has been defined, specifically for
use to record SPF information, called, unsurprisingly, the SPF record type.
The current situation is that you should create both a TXT record and an SPF
record to store your SPF information, however, if you can only create a TXT
record then this will be fine for the foreseeable future.
Not all DNS systems support TXT records, never mind SPF records.
How to Create an SPF Record
This is normally done by logging on to the Control Panel on the website of your
Domain Registrar, who are the people you pay money to in order to keep
using your Internet domain name.
All these Control Panels seem to operate differently but your aim is to create a
TXT record like this one:-
mycompany.co.uk. IN TXT "v=spf1
include:arrowmail.co.uk -all"
with your
domain name
substituted for mycompany.co.uk
If you can also create an SPF type record then it's exactly the same as the TXT
record.
If you have more than one domain name that you send emails from, you should
create a separate SPF record for each domain.
Need help creating an SPF record?
We want our customers' emails to have the best chance of being
delivered so, if you want to create an SPF record but don't feel confident
enough to actually do it, or someone has told you it's not possible, here are some
things we're happy to do for you to make it happen:-
1 - |
We'll create the SPF record for you
Give us the username and password for your
Domain Registrar control panel and we'll create the required SPF record.. You may need to get a password reminder or
contact them about how to access your DNS settings.
If you don't know who's handling your DNS, we can look this up for you.
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2 - |
We'll host and manage your DNS for you
We run our own DNS system with 3 separate servers, so if you think it's simpler to
let us handle everything then we can host your DNS.
We charge £1.85/month
for the first domain and £1/month for any extra domains.
We'll create
both a TXT and SPF type records for your domain plus replicate all your existing
DNS records before the changeover to avoid any disruption.
We don't have a web control panel to allow you to change DNS records
yourself so you'll need to email us if you need to make any changes in the future.
Letting us host and manage your DNS is a safe option for those not familiar
with the subtleties of DNS records.
We'll still need that pesky username and password for your current Domain
Registrar/DNS host and then we'll move everything over to our system,
without causing you any downtime.
Our DNS Hosting website is
www.dnsmax.co.uk |
How can I confirm that I've created the SPF record Correctly?
You can check that your SPF record has been correctly setup by sending an email
to:-
check-auth@verifier.port25.com
Make sure that the From address you use is covered by the SPF record, and that
you send out the email using one of the servers listed in your SPF record.
There's no need to put anything in the Subject Line or the Body of the email.
You should receive a reply containing something like the extract below, which
also checks out any other anti-spam initiatives such as DomainKeys, DKIM, and
Sender-ID:-
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