SPF
SPF Record Validator
Use this tool to check and validate your SPF raw record.
What is the SPF Record Validator?
Our SPF raw check tool allows you to validate your SPF record before publishing it in your DNS to avoid any typos and/or misconfigurations.
What Needs to be in an SPF Record?
Your SPF record should include the domains and IP addresses of all services that send emails from your domain.
How to Correct a Failed SPF Record Message?
There are 2 common SPF failures: Failing Authentication or Alignment.
For Authentication failures: The IP address of your mail server must be whitelisted properly in the sender domain’s SPF Record.
For Alignment failures: The return-path address should match the From: address in use for outgoing emails.
In most cases, you need to get in touch with your ESP in use to fix these failures. Some providers already allow customers to achieve alignment by default, while others will let you activate it from the given portal. However, some providers don’t provide SPF alignment at all.
Where do I Set up my SPF Record?
The point of implementing SPF is to identify which mail servers you use to send emails from your domain. After making a list of your sending domains, generate your SPF record and publish it in your DNS.
I Have Published my SPF Records, What's Next?
The next step is to implement your DMARC Record with EasyDMARC's RUA and RUF addresses. This allows you to receive DMARC reports which will show how your SPF (and DKIM) are performing (pass vs. fail).
The tags and their definitions
| TAG | TAG DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| v (required) | The version tag. is the only allowed value is "spf1". If it's incorrect or the tag is missing, the SPF record will be ignored. |
| ip4 | This tag should include all the IPv4 addresses that are allowed to send emails on behalf of the domain. |
| ip6 | This tag should include all the IPv6 addresses that are allowed to send emails on behalf of the domain. |
| a | The A record tag allows the SPF to validate the sender by domain name's IP address. If left unspecified, it takes the value of the current domain. |
| mx | The MX record tag checks the MX record of the mail server(s). If left unspecified, it takes the value of the current domain. |
| ptr (Not recommended) | The PTR tag prompts a PTR check for client IP hostname(s). It's a not recommended tag as per RFC 7208, because it spends too many DNS lookups. |
| exists | The exists tag checks if an A record exists or not on the mentioned domain. |
| include | The include tag is of top importance for a correct SPF record. Listing all your sending sources under this tag lets the recipient know that you verify all the aded domains/subdomains as legitimate sources. |
| all (required) | All is a required tag. It should be placed at the end of the SPF record. Depending on the qualifiers used (~, +, -, ?), this mechanism indicates how the recipient should treat emails from non-authorized sources. |