Introduction
Because it is technically trivial to forge the "From" header of an email message, "fake" email and forged headers have become a real problem on the internet.
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) was designed to counter the problems of forged email: usually found in spam, viruses or deliberate forgeries.
At some point in time, you have likely received a junk email that had your own domain name in the "From" line of the header. SPF addresses this, by providing mail servers information about where email from given domain should originate. (For those more knowledgeable about DNS, think of it as a "reverse MX record" for your domain.
Background
The SPF home page, located at http://spf.pobox.com, is recommended reading. You may want to review their FAQ, the Executive Summary, or dive into the SPF mailing list.
Using SPF with easyDNS
Our first phase in the rollout of SPF support is to add TXT DNS records to your DNS interface. SPF data is published in these TXT records.
TXT record data can be any string less than 255 characters, all double-quotes are escaped with a backslash, and all non-ASCII characters are converted to %xx, where "xx" is the hexadecimal code for that character.
Since they are hidden by default, you will need to enable TXT records in your "domain preferences" section:
On your domain preferences page, set Show TXT Records to yes.
Once you have TXT records enabled for your domain, you will need to generate SPF data for your domains. The easiest way to do this currently is by using the SPF Publisher Wizardon the SPF homepage.
When you have generated SPF data for your domain, copy that information and enter it into a TXT record for your root domain in your DNS settings.
easyDNS Specific SPF Settings
If you are using easyDNS email forwarding or backup mail spooling, there is a good chance that email from your domain will transit through our mail pool (for example, en route to other users in your domain). If this is the case, you you will need to specify this fact in your SPF data.
Make sure your SPF data contains the string include:easydns.com.
If you are using the SPF Wizard, enter "easydns.com" (without
the quotes) in the include: section of the wizard.
Making Sure It Works
You can test your SPF records using a third party-utility at one of these sites:
easyDNS and SPF Enforcement
Currently, easyDNS mail forwarders and spoolers is beta testing SPF validation on inbound mail.
Domain Name Registration
|
Domain Name Transfers
|
E-Mail Forwarding
DNS Service & Management
|
Dynamic DNS Service
|
Secondary DNS Service
