Description
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a protocol that is used to prevent spammers from sending messages with forged ‘From’ addresses at your domain.
An SPF record is a type of TXT record that identifies any mail servers permitted to send an email on behalf of your domain; they are also known as Reverse MX records.
Domain administrators publish SPF records in the Domain Name System (DNS); this enables the incoming mail servers to verify the domain name from which email messages are sent. When a recipient's mail server receives an email message, it checks the SPF record to determine whether it is a valid message. If the message comes from a server that is included in the SPF record, it is legitimate; if not, it is rejected as spam.
Updating Sender Policy Framework
To avoid emails being marked as spam, it is important to update the SPF record for all domains for which the emails will be routed to Exclaimer Cloud.
The SPF record needs to be updated to include the following SPF include mechanism:
- Where <region code> is replaced with the region code for the subscription (see How to check your region code).
- place it directly after the include mechanism for Outlook.com or Gmail, as it will already be in the right place for sending emails, and
- add it before the all mechanism as it is effectively the end of the SPF record.
Example before updating the record:
v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com ~all
Example after updating the record:
v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf.<region code>.exclaimer.net ~all
Please note that there are many DNS hosting providers available and each one may have a different method for editing the SPF records as it is part of the Domain Name System (DNS) settings.
If you do not know how to access the SPF record, we recommend that you either contact the hosting service provider or whoever is responsible for hosting within the organization to assist you further.
How to check your region code?
- Login to the Exclaimer portal (portal.exclaimer.com), using the email address provided when you created the subscription.
- Under Your Subscriptions, click Manage...
NOTE: If you cannot see the Manage option against the required subscription then you are not the subscription administrator. - Under Subscription details, locate the Server to view your region.
Region codes:
AU
Australia
CA
Canada
EU
Europe
IN
India
UK
United Kingdom
US
United States