How to Create an SPF Record for your Domain.

If you have your own domain (like yourname.com) and use it for email, then you'll want to create an SPF record to prevent your emails from being classified as SPAM. Read on to find out how!

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• 10 minutes
• Access to the DNS records for your domain.

1. The purpose of an SPF record is to allow a receiving mailserver (MTA) to interrogate the Name Server of the domain which appears in the email (the sender) and determine if the originating IP of the mail is authorized to send mail for the sender's domain.
   
   Or in short, an SPF record on when placed on a domain, verifies to the receiving email server that the message was sent by a server defined in the SPF record.
2. So, the first step is to create the actual SPF record which you will apply to your domain.
   
   You will need to know the IP address, or server name of the SMTP server(s) which will send email for your domain.
   
   Now, go to this link at openspf.org to create the record in with the correct syntax.
   
   http://old.openspf.org/wizard.html
3. Now, go to your domain's DNS provider (often the same as your registrar) and add your SPF record you created above.
   
   You'll want to add your record on the @none hostname, or on 'domain.com' not 'www.domain.com' or 'mail.domain.com'
   
   The record type of 'TXT' should be chosen.

Tips & Warnings

• domain.com IN TXT v=spf1 a:domain.com ~all is a valid SPF record, but it allows all mail servers to send mail for your domain. If all you need is an SPF record, it will work.
• Don't forget to remove the quotation marks from either end of the record if you use a wizard.
• Put your SPF record on the correct host name in your DNS control panel.