SpinnakerPro Tip - Deliverability

Last Updated: April 2010.

This webpage will explain what SPF records and Domain Keys are, and why they are very important when it comes to deliverability.

What is an SPF Record?

An SPF record (SPF stands for Sender Policy Framework) is a setting on your domain that says we (newsletter.ie) are permitted to send emails on your behalf. Setting up an SPF record is a task that will take 2 minutes for someone in your IT Department, and will greatly improve deliverability to email servers/packages that authenticate the senders domain. This includes many webmail packages like AOL, Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo.

How do I set it up?

To set up an SPF record, here is the information you need.

• The SPF record is added to your domain, e.g. www.companyname.com, and is done through the domain's hosting control panel.
• The servers you will need to add to your SPF record are:
  • newsletter.ie
  • imail138.newsletter.ie (IronPort Broadcasting Machine - Server 1)
  • imail139.newsletter.ie (IronPort Broadcasting Machine - Server 2)
  • imail34.newsletter.ie (IronPort Broadcasting Machine - Server 3)
• If your IT Department does not know how to add an SPF record to your domain, then check with your website hosting providers - they'll be happy to help.
• Once the SPF record has been added, you can tell hotmail to update their records using this link: http://support.msn.com/default.aspx?productKey=senderid&mkt=en-us   - This should improve deliverability to hotmail addresses for the next campaign.

If you require any advice or further information about SPF records, don't hesitate to contact us. Details at the bottom of this page.

How do I know if the SPF record has been added?

Depending on how often your hosting provider publishes their DNS records, the SPF record may take up to 24 hours to take effect.

Go to www.senderscore.org, and look up your domain. On the results screen near the top, you will see 3 stats for your domain - "Has MX Record", "Has SPF Record" and "Has SenderID".

The "Has SPF Record" will say "Yes".

Sample SPF Record

This is a sample SPF record that says newsletter.ie is permitted to send emails on behalf of mycompany.com:

mycompany.com. IN TXT "v=spf1 a:imail.newsletter.ie a:imail138.newsletter.ie a:imail34.newsletter.ie a:newsletter.ie -all"

IMPORTANT - Please Read Carefully

These settings may vary depending on whether or not your domain sends other emails. If you have a mail server that sends mails on your company's behalf, it must be added to this SPF string, using one of the following: mx (if your company has an MX record) a:mail.mycompany.com (if your company uses a POP3 server - replace with your company's own server) ip4:1.2.3.4 (if your company sends from a server only accessible by IP address) If in doubt, contact your hosting provider for assistance. This is very important as the "-all" at the end of the string means that any sending IPs that are not on the SPF string will fail the SPF check.

Note 2: Make sure the keyword PTR is not in your SPF string. This is what Microsoft say about using PTR:

The specification for SPF records (RFC 4408) discourages use of "ptr" for performance and reliability reasons. This is especially important for Windows Live Mail, Hotmail and other large ISPs as a result of the very high volume of mail we receive each day. We highly recommend you remove the "ptr" mechanism from your SPF record and, if necessary, replace it with other SPF mechanisms that do not require a reverse DNS lookup, such as "a", "mx", "ip4" and "include." This will help ensure that Sender ID validation is performed as accurately as possible, maximizing your email deliverability while protecting your domain from spoofing.

If you cannot change the SPF record for your domain, please let us know and we can set up a newsletter.ie email address for you, e.g. mycompanyname@newsletter.ie    

What is a Domain Key?

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is another means of authenticating emails, and the mechanism is used by email providers like Gmail and Yahoo to determine if an email is genuine.

It works by digitally signing every broadcasted email with one half of a key. The other half of the key resides on your domain. When an email package reads the digital signature in the email, it confirms that the key in the email is paired with the key on your domain, and determines that the email is genuine.

How do I set it up?

As with SPF, adding a domain key is a configuration change on your domain. Unlike SPF, a domain key is unique to your domain, and has to be created by us.

1. Contact us at support@newsletter.ie to request a domain key for your domain.
2. We will generate a domain key and email it to you.
3. Your IT department will be able to install the key (the same way they install the SPF record).
4. The domain key can take up to 24 hours to activate once installed.
5. We will run a series of tests to confirm that the domain key is configured correctly.

You can find out more about domain keys by clicking here.
 

Need Help or More Information?

Call us on +353 61 234500, or email support@newsletter.ie and we'll be happy to help.