Help me sort out my domain spf record please

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colinuu

246 posts

Master Geek

#293186 4-Jan-2022 22:37

My domain (moorlands.kiwi.nz) is hosted by Crazy Domains (previously Domains4less). In recent times I have had some issues with emails I send being blocked by the recipient's mail system spam filters. A test message sent to www.mailgenius.com revealed (amongst other things) that I had no SPF record in my DNS settings.

I found another topic in this forum - an extensive discussion about SPF issues - and after reading it through I added a TXT record with v=spf1 a mx ~all to the DNS. www.spf-record.com is completely happy with this, the 'a' and 'mx' both resolve properly. However mailgenius is not convinced:

It turns out that my mail now gets delivered, but only because of the softfail mechanism. Why am I not authorised, what am I missing here?

dfnt

1504 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2843265 4-Jan-2022 22:48

Just use the record your mail provider recommends, not the one recommended by a random on Geekzone imo

I'm too tired to think but a quick check, your mx record is mail.moorlands.kiwi.nz which resolves to 203.28.49.217. From that snippet you posted above the sender IP isn't permitted per your spf record.

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colinuu

246 posts

Master Geek

#2843267 4-Jan-2022 22:56

Except that I am interested in this stuff and wanting to learn...

[EDIT] Sorry, didn't see the scond part of your reply. I'm not sure why that should make a difference, but can try.

dfnt

1504 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2843268 4-Jan-2022 22:58

Yet you just copy/pasted a poorly constructed SPF record from a Geekzone post without understanding what it does :D

https://serverfault.com/questions/1047763/spf-record-why-do-we-use-a-alongside-mx

I had to edit my post to remove the suggested SPF record, I'm tired, so it would be incorrect as your sender IP is 27.x. What provider are you relaying mail through?

colinuu

246 posts

Master Geek

#2843273 4-Jan-2022 23:03

Crazy Domains is the email provider.

dfnt

1504 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2843274 4-Jan-2022 23:08

Sorry yep, figured that one out slowly

From their support page: https://www.crazydomains.com.au/help/how-to-ensure-that-emails-are-working-with-email-exchange/

They suggest the following SPF record: v=spf1 +a +mx include:_spf.syrahost.com ~all

The include tag contains all sender IP subnets Crazy Domains uses, I've checked and 27.111.89.10 is covered but I assume this would be randomised based on what relay you hit

Amosnz

567 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2843275 4-Jan-2022 23:09

I had similar occasional sending SPF failures after my d4l domain was moved to crazy domains. I worked out I had to add another thing into my spf record, but looking at my setup I'm not sure what it was.

It might have been: v=spf1 +a +mx include:_spf.syrahost.com ~all.

Edit - I spent too long looking at it and you beat me.

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colinuu

246 posts

Master Geek

#2843276 4-Jan-2022 23:12

Thanks both of you, I will add the include and see how it goes. Cheers.

[EDIT] All good now, thanks.

dfnt

1504 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2843280 4-Jan-2022 23:45

Excellent 👍

Lias

5575 posts

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#2843349 5-Jan-2022 08:12

Useful tool for future reference:

https://www.spfwizard.net

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.