SPF record settings
Set up SPF records for Qboxmail domains to authorize mail servers and reduce spoofing and delivery issues.
What an SPF record is and what it is used for
An SPF record is a setting, to be added to DNS, that defines which mail servers and IP addresses are authorized to send email on behalf of a specific domain.
By configuring an SPF record, you can tell recipient servers which IP addresses are authorized to send email using your domain name as the sender. This setting helps you increase your security and protect yourself from email scams.
Setting a correct SPF record reduces the likelihood that someone can use your domain to send spam or phishing emails and increases the chances that your message will not be marked as unwanted. Setting an SPF record is a very simple configuration to perform, has no additional cost, and has no impact on performance.
It is strongly recommended to set an SPF record for every active domain on Qboxmail.
Set an SPF record
To set the SPF record on your domain, you must access the DNS management panel of the provider where you registered the domain and add it as follows:
| Record Type | Value |
|---|---|
| TXT | v=spf1 include:spf.qboxmail.com mx a -all |
The setting shown above also authorizes email sending by the server hosting your website.
Verification of the correctness of the SPF record is performed by the server that receives the email. After adding the record, it may take up to 24 hours for the DNS change to become fully operational.
Set a White Label SPF record
White Label SPF records are available for Resellers to set on users' domains. By using White Label SPF records, any direct reference to Qboxmail will be removed. You can download the PDF file with the White Label Parameters for service configuration from the customer area after logging in.
White Label configuration is included in the service fee.
Advanced settings to enable SPF records from other providers
If emails with your domain as the sender are also sent from other providers (e.g. Mailchimp), you must also add their SPF settings by adding their “include” entries as shown in the following example:
| Record Type | Value |
|---|---|
| TXT | v=spf1 include:spf.qboxmail.com include:servers.mcsv.net mx a -all |
If, for example, the IP address of your company mail server (or SMTP dedicated to sending DEM) were 151.2.3.4, you would need to enter the following in DNS:
| Record Type | Value |
|---|---|
| TXT | v=spf1 include:spf.qboxmail.com ip4:151.2.3.4/32 mx a -all |
Refer to the technical support of your current DNS service provider for the correct settings in your DNS control panel.
Make sure you publish only one TXT record that includes all the necessary SPF entries
Verify the correct SPF record setting in DNS
Qboxmail servers can in turn validate the SPF record for incoming emails and add a header that reports the result of this validation. The header can be viewed by opening the message source and appears in this form: Received-SPF: pass (0: SPF record at spf.qboxmail.com designates 185.97.218.202 as permitted sender)Received-SPF: pass (0: SPF record at spf.qboxmail.com designates 185.97.218.202 as permitted sender)
When the result is “pass”, it means that the SPF record of the email sender is configured correctly.
To verify that the SPF record is correctly set on your domain, you can run the nslookup command from a terminal:
nslookup -q=txt example.comwhich should return:
example.com text = “v=spf1 include:spf.qboxmail.com mx a -allYou can also use our dedicated tool to check whether a given IP address is present in your domain's SPF record.
The last parameter of the record can be set as HardFail (-all) or SoftFail (~all). The difference is that -all instructs recipient servers to reject messages from your domain if they do not come from one of the IPs specified in the SPF record, while with ~all messages coming from unauthorized IPs are still accepted but may be penalized.