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What are SPF and DKIM?
If you’re not a technical person or you’ve never dealt with email settings before, it’s extremely likely that these are only gibberish. So let’s have a look at each and explain what they do. SPF or Sender Policy Framework is the protocol that checks you are who you say you are. This is the one preventing people sending emails in your behalf by identifying which IP addresses are the ones belonging to your domain. For example, if you wouldn’t have SPF set up, the communication between your email server and the server of the person you’re sending the message to, would go something like this:-
- You: Hello Person_name, I am Adrian.
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- Person: Hello, what’s your ID?
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- You: I don’t actually have one, but you should absolutely trust me.
- Person: I am sorry, but in this case I can’t let you in. Without proper ID, I can’t know you are who you say you are
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- You: Hello Person_name, I am Adrian.
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- Person: Hello, what’s your ID?
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- Your: Here it is, I have a list of accepted IP addresses, declared by the owner of this account.
- Person: Ok, let me check… Yes, everything seems in order. Your message will be delivered.
How to set SPF on your server?
The SPF is easy to set up. All you have to do is make sure all the email clients you’re using, with an SMTP different than yours, are included in the SPF. For instance, if you’re using G Suite, you should put Google in your SPF. Other apps to include in your SPF:-
- Your businesses website (so the forms would work properly)
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- Email marketing platforms, e.g Mailchimp
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- Line of Business Software or ticketing system, e.g Autotask
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- Any other websites that email out with your domain
- Email signature management, e.g Black Pearl Mail
What is DKIM?
Moving on with the settings, we reach DKIM, or DomainKeys Identified Mail standard. Its role is similar to the one of SPF, and it can be seen as an additional identification process. This way, if someone manages to go past your SPF, they will hit a wall with DKIM.
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- A private key which you use to encrypt your messages;
- A public key which resides in your DNS records and decrypts the hidden signature in the header of your message.