An SPF record lists the mail servers that are permitted to send email on behalf of your domain. If a message is sent through an unauthorized mail server, it’s reported and can be marked as spam. You can set up an SPF record to prevent spammers from using your domain to send unauthorized emails, also called spoofing. Some mail recipients require SPF. If you don’t add an SPF record for your domain, your messages can be marked as spam or even bounce back.
Note: For best practices, use SPF and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). SPF validates who’s relaying the email, while DKIM adds a digital signature to verify the email’s content.
To check the SPF record for a domain name, please check http://www.kitterman.com/spf/validate.html
For example: Output for samnetworks.in is: v=spf1 +a +mx +ip4:45.77.40.19 ~all
SPF1 version. IPv 4 addresses with range are allowed to send emails to any remote or local domains.
Creating SPF Record in cPanel:
- Log into your cPanel dashboard at http://yourdomain.com:2082 or https://cloud100.samnetworks.in:2083
- From the main cPanel page, look for the Email category. From there, click on the Authentication icon.
- This brings you to the Authentication screen. Begin by finding the SPF subsection, which is the vast majority of the page. Scroll down to the lower part of the screen and check the checkbox for the All Entry (ALL):. This is important as it adds the '-all' to the end of the record so that all addresses that fail the other checks will be rejected.
- Now that you have set the basic SPF settings, scroll back up to the top and click the Enable button for the SPF section.
The server now creates the SPF record for your hosting account. You will receive a success message along with the SPF record's full syntax on the screen.
Making changes to SPF record using cPanel DNS Editor:
- Log into your cPanel dashboard at http://yourdomain.com:2082 or https://cloud100.samnetworks.in:2083
- From the main cPanel page, click on 'Advanced Zone Editor' under 'Domains' section.
- Use the 'Add a Record' form on this page to create the record as follows:
- Name - the hostname you wish to create the record for (yourdomain.com)
- TTL - 14400 [When changing the IP of a domain, end users will have the old IP of the domain cached at their ISP's nameservers for a duration of the TTL (time to live). The default value is 14400 seconds (4 hours)]
- Type - TXT
- TXT Data - enter the TXT string as available to you eg. v=spf1 mx ip4:45.77.40.19 ~all
- Click [Add Record] to save the configuration
The SPF record will be updated within 1-12 hours once the new DNS propagates around the world.
