SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a system to help domain owners specify the servers which are supposed to send mail from their domain. The aim is that other mail systems can then check to make sure the server sending email from that domain is authorized to do so - reducing the chance of email 'spoofing', phishing schemes and spam!
Important: SPF records need to be added to the DNS records for a domain name and need to be tailored to you or your company's needs so it may not be possible to use them with some 'free' email addresses such as Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc.
If you already have a SPF record you just need to add:
include:authsmtp.com
... to your existing SPF record (before the -all).
So a 'typical' SPF record could be:
"v=spf1 a mx include:authsmtp.com ~all"
This will by default allow email from the default IP address for your domain (typically your web server), any hosts at your domain (i.e. hostname.your-domain-name.com) and all the domains we currently use for sending your email.
There are 4 options for 'all' - we recommend using '~all' to start with and then consider the strictest '-all' when you are 100% sure the SPF records you have chosen are accurate.
For information on the syntax and format of SPF records please see the SPF record syntax guide.
Depending on your email / server configuration you may need to setup some additional records, if you don't know how to setup your SPF record please contact your ISP or domain name host.
For more information on SPF please see the official website - www.openspf.net
Once your SPF record is setup AND working correctly we would recommend that you register your SPF / Sender ID configuration with Microsoft (Hotmail, MSN, Windows Live) - to do this please fill this form on their website:
Microsoft Sender ID Registration
If you have any questions please contact us.
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