Support - SPF Information
SPF or Sender Policy Framework is a protocol that is used to diminish forged email.
Are you receiving bounced emails that appear to be sent by you?
This would be an example of a forged email address. Typically spammers will forge the return email address to make it appear that you are the sender. When the email cannot find the destination it bounces back to the forged return email address (you@yourdomain.com).
How does this happen?
The SMTP email protocol was designed to allow a person on any computer to send email with any return address they would like to use. Unfortunately this also allows someone to specify a spoofed or invalid email address.
How does SPF address this issue?
SPF was created in 2003 to address the growing problem of spammers using forged email addresses to send unsolicited spam emails. It was designed to validate the sender to make sure they are who they say they are. A SPF record is created for your domain that tells you (your computer) how to find out if the sending machine is allowed to send mail from that address.
What it does:
SPF will validate the sender against the domain name to prevent forged emails.
What it doesn't do:
SPF is not an anti-spam solution. Not all spam emails are from forged email addresses.
What can I do to prevent forged emails?
A SPF record needs to be set up for your domain.
- Go to the following URL and fill out their online form using the'SPF WIZARD': http://www.openspf.org/
- Copy the results of the SPF WIZARD into an email addressed to: support@adhost.com
Adhost Support will add the SPF record to your domain and send you a confirmation email in reply.
