Within the DNS zone of a domain name, there are several types of records. In this article, we explain what an SPF record is. SPF is the abbreviation for Sender Policy Framework. This technique is used to
prevent email spoofing
.
prevent email spoofing
.
Email spoofing
With this form of cybercrime, e-mail (spam) is sent on behalf of your domain name, which can damage your domain name’s reputation. This can be in the form of a blacklist (spam) or image damage (messages with you as the sender).
How SPF works
Many spam filters use an algorithm to mark or not mark email as spam. Part of this is checking the presence of an SPF record. This is a DNS record (TXT record) in which you indicate which servers are authorized to send e-mail from your domain name.
For example, this looks like this:
- v=spf1 include:spf.mailchimp.com ip4:79.137.74.225 ip4:79.137.74.224 a -all
In the example above, we indicate that two servers (79.137.74.225 and 79.137.74.224) and Mailchimp are authorized to send email from our domain name servermeister.com. When spam filters receive email from another server, they can mark it as spam.
SPF Wizard
Because you have to be very punctual with SPF records, it is good to always check them for inaccuracies. A typo can cause you to block all outgoing email or open it up to spammers.
We use various toolings ourselves to build SPF records. A good example of this is spfwizard.net. On
mxtoolbox.com
you can check SPF records.
mxtoolbox.com
you can check SPF records.
When you use, for example, Gmail, Mandrill, Microsoft Exchange et cetera, you are often presented with a text message during the configuration which SPF record you need to add, you only have to copy/paste this.
