What is SPF and how to configure it?

Starting in February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo are rolling up new authentication requirements which require using a custom DKIM authenticated domain with DMARC reinforced.

GetResponse strongly advises all senders to use emails addresses from own private domains as a from email address, and to configure both DKIM and DMARC.

For additional details on these modifications, refer to our blog post:
Gmail and Yahoo’s Authentication Changes: All You Need to Know

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) indicates IP addresses authorized to send emails from the specific domain. While we do recommend creating an SPF record, please note that doing so is not required to send messages from GetResponse.

Creating SPF record assigns it to the domain used as from email address. The sending domain is GetResponse and is already SPF signed. The domain used in the from’ field refers to the domain name that appears in the sender’s email address, in an email client where you see From: example@domain.com. This domain is visible to the recipient and helps identify who the sender claims to be. The sending domain refers to the domain that’s used to send the email from the server’s perspective.

To be able to create an SPF record, you will need:

  • Your own domain
  • Access to the DNS administration panel

Adding an SPF record for your domain

The process may differ depending on where your domain is hosted.

To add an SPF record to your domain, you need to:

  1. Log in to your domain hosting control panel.
  2. In the domain settings section, look for the DNS settings.
  3. Add a TXT record with appropriate values (name, value, TTL).
  4. Save the changes.

The SPF record name (host) would be the domain URL or @.

The SPF record value is the following:

v=spf1 mx a include:_spf.getresponse.com -all

If you already have your own SPF record, you can modify it by adding:

include:_spf.getresponse.com

to the overall record, before ~all/-all value.

The TTL usually is set to 3600.

Depending on your domain host it can take up to 24 hours for the changes to propagate.

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