Create an SPF policy

This article explains how to create an SPF policy to protect your email traffic.

Prerequisites

• Applies to: Administrator
• Difficulty: Easy
• Time needed: 15 minutes to create a record, 24-48 hours for the record to propagate
• Tools required: DNS host administrator access

You also need access to update DNS entries for your domain. If you do not know
where your DNS lives, see Find your DNS host.

For more information on prerequisite terminology, see
Cloud Office support terminology.

An SPF policy alone is not enough to protect the integrity of your domain
email. To create a secure email verification policy, we recommend the
following:

1. Create an SPF record policy.
2. Create a DKIM record.
3. Create a DMARC record policy.

Create an SPF record

1. Log in to the Control Panel for your domain DNS host.

2. Create a TXT record with the following specifications:

   Type	Hostname	Destination	TTL
   TXT	@	v=spf1 include:emailsrvr.com ~all	3600

3. Decide how you want to enforce SPF failures:

   • ~all: results in a soft fail (Not authorized, but not explicitly unauthorized).
   • -all: results in a hard fail (Unauthorized).
   • ?all: neutral (As if there is no policy at all).

   Enter your choice after v=spf1 include:emailsrvr.com and save your changes.

4. Adding the IP or server names after include: allows mail servers.

   For example:

   Type	Hostname	Destination	TTL
   TXT	@	v=spf1 include:emailsrvr.com include:othermailer.com ~all	3600

5. Save your changes.