Where do I setup my SPF record?

Posted on April 2, 2015

I have a VPS where some of my hosted clients will get email going into spam more often than not.

Here are the results of a test I did on mail-tester.com (my host name and IP changed below just for privacy reasons).

[SPF] server.MY_VPS_HOSTNAME.com does not allow your server XXX.XXX.XX.XX to use ONE_OF_MY_CLIENTS_DOMAIN_NAMES@server.MY_VPS_HOSTNAME.com
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email validation system designed to prevent email spam by detecting email spoofing, a common vulnerability, by verifying sender IP addresses.

What we retained as your current SPF record is:

v=spf1 -all
It should be changed to:

v=spf1 ip4:XXX.XXX.XX.XX ~all

My question is, do I change the SPF record at the registrar where my VPS domain name is registered?

Also, do I have to do this for all my clients domains that I host on that VPS?

Thanks in advance!

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jay986365

April 3, 2015

Harvey,

If Server1 sends mail using the following domain names; domain1.com , domain2.com etc. You have to put the SPF records into the dns records of the domain names. Not the server1 one.

Because, SPF does the following: A retreiving mailserver will check the domain name for SPF records, in other words: which mail servers, in this case Server1, may e-mail as the domain name.

Clear?