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emailspamspf

What should I use for SPF record of my domain?

I have example1.com hosted on host.example2.com. Typical cpanel scenario. And:

  1. And example1.com is installed with Magento which sends many sorts of emails to the users from host.example2.com.
  2. And I also set up example1.com with Google Apps with its MX entries as required by them.

Very typical. So I came up with this SPF record for example1.com:

v=spf1 a mx include:host.example2.com include:_spf.google.com -all

Is this correct?

It seems not because when I used the on-site contact form on example1.com to send a test visitor message (which was sent to my Google Apps email from host.example2.com), the email I received in Google Apps inbox was still with a 'via' field (via host.example2.com). I figure this means Google email takes this message to be not sent by example1.com ITSELF?

This record has been created since 2 days ago and the 'via' field was still present when example1.com tries to send a message from the server of host.example2.com.

If anyone could enlighten me on this that'd be really appreciated! Thanks!

Solution

  • The SPF record has nothing to do with the way the receiving server identifies the transmitting server.

    The receiving server identifies the transmitting server by its IP address, a reverse DNS lookup on that IP address, and the HELO name it gives at the start of the mail session.

    On the other hand SPF is used to determine if the transmitting server is authorized to use the envelope reverse-path address and HELO name.