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SPF record explained

March 11, 2022 (Fri)  |  By Liche Chishaka  |  In DNS Hosting

What’s an SPF record?

An SPF record is a Sender Policy Framework record. It’s used to indicate to mail exchanges which hosts are authorized to send mail for a domain. It’s defined in RFC 4408, and clarified by RFC 7208.

SPF record format

SPF records are typically defined using the TXT record type. There’s also an SPF record type, but it’s deprecated, and you should always have at least the TXT record definition present, even if you use the SPF type. SPF records are defined as a single string of text. Here’s an example record:

v=spf1 a mx ip4:69.64.153.131 include:_spf.google.com ~all

The SPF record always starts with the v= element. This indicates the SPF version that is used. Right now, the version should always be spf1 as this is the most common version of SPF that is understood by mail exchanges. One or more terms follow the version indicator. These define the rules for which hosts are allowed to send mail from the domain or provide additional information for processing the SPF record. Terms are made up of mechanisms and modifiers. The following mechanisms are defined: all include a mx ip4 ip6 exists

What’s an SPF record?

An SPF record is a Sender Policy Framework record. It’s used to indicate to mail exchanges which hosts are authorized to send mail for a domain. It’s defined in RFC 4408, and clarified by RFC 7208.

SPF record format

SPF records are typically defined using the TXT record type. There’s also an SPF record type, but it’s deprecated, and you should always have at least the TXT record definition present, even if you use the SPF type. SPF records are defined as a single string of text. Here’s an example record:

v=spf1 a mx ip4:69.64.153.131 include:_spf.google.com ~all

The SPF record always starts with the v= element. This indicates the SPF version that is used. Right now, the version should always be spf1 as this is the most common version of SPF that is understood by mail exchanges. One or more terms follow the version indicator. These define the rules for which hosts are allowed to send mail from the domain or provide additional information for processing the SPF record. Terms are made up of mechanisms and modifiers. The following mechanisms are defined: all include a mx ip4 ip6 exists