Below is a guide on how to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records with your SmarterMail service.
For more information on these services - please read our blog article here - https://hostinguk.net/blog/email-deliverability-security/
1. The easiest way to create an SPF record is to use an SPF record generator. There are many sites that offer this tool, such as MXToolbox
2. Put in your domain name and click Check SPF Record.
3. Configure the options found to generate the correct SPF record. See screenshot below:
In the above example, this assumes your domain is sending out of our mail9.hostinguk.net server and will need adjusting accordingly. If you are unsure, please contact support and we can confirm the correct mail server. If you have hosting services with other providers that also sends mail, then you may have to contact them to find the correct IP address or 3rd party systems e.g. a website that sends emails via a contact form.
4. Once the SPF record has been generated, click Finalise Record.
5. The SPF record will then need adding into your DNS zone as the following:
Type: TXT
Host: @
Value: v=spf1 include:mail9.hostinguk.net -all
TTL: 3600 (1 hour)
N.B. Ideally your SPF Policy should be set to Strict, denoted by a dash symbol -all. If you wish to relax the policy, you can adjust this to Soft Fail, denoted by a tilde ~all. It is not recommended to set the policy to Neutral, denoted by a question mark ?all.
1. The easiest way to create a DKIM record is to use a DKIM generator. Many sites offer such a tool, such as EasyDMARC.
2. Put your domain name in, and put in s1 for the selector, with the key length 2048.
3. Click Generate
4. You then need to add the record generated into your DNS zone as the following:
Type: TXT
Host: s1._domainkey.example.com
Value: v=DKIM1;t=s;p=MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAxEeIftgk6uD2Y6rY1vi9qCeCqjJ24KX6OSJz8G+S5+z6RwZI1FcCPeabMnI9p7hnCuIn8FxfMYMBVDvbvdjPw8Od3urWr2T0dibEr1ajqKQ46itdBoIJmIi178H6KYkjROMyXBmvL3SuFckTsGrQedZtLB6rmFvjqb6Yz+7Eb/pByyQZ5Tqtoh5MdHxUHWIAchOf9ARgooIuEcHmeiVhz63gMuH8PlS41Sul2i/JhEtJfDMS31o1HmzSMLkQTMACfpxizpVemaCl5NcNEV2NywSr5pObRR+1XSy/9/xDflsa9PTlg0iyV2oUyKniifJGcHmJy/tYKSbFgQBWZMkdzwIDAQAB
TTL: 3600 (1 hour)
1. There are many ways to create a DMARC record. The easiest is to use a DMARC wizard. There are many sites that offer such a tool, such as MXToolbox.
2. Put your domain in and click Check DMARC Record.
3. Configure the options found to generate the correct DMARC record. See screenshot below for example:
In the above example, the DMARC record is set to quarantine all non-aligned messages, you can adjust p to “reject” to reject non-aligned emails or “none” which will have no effect. The record will also send a report to the email address specified.
4. You then need to add the record generated into your DNS zone as the following:
Type: TXT
Host: _dmarc
Value: v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:<example@example.com>; ruf=mailto:<user@example.com>;
TTL: 3600 (1 hour)
