Easily keep your email from being blocked or mistaken as SPAM? Not so easy after all!

With the introduction of Microsoft Exchange 2007, Microsoft widely adopted an authentication method to ensure that legitimate email from legitimate companies (like yours!) is transported to their intended recipients without being blacklisted or accidentally mistaken for spam. This technology is called SPF for SENDER POLICY FRAMEWORK.

Here's a diagram of how this works:

Many of today's Anti-Spam filters use an SPF record to authenticate that the message was sent by the person it claims to be sent by. This reduces the chances of users receiving "Spoofed Emails" in their inbox. What a great technology right? Who wouldn't sign up to make sure their recipients receive fewer spam messages and less advertisements for drugs and landmines shipped discreetly to your door? I know I would like to do anything that will cut my spam levels, so I decided to get on board with creating an SPF record for our domain: http://www.theohiogroup.com/ where our mail servers send out all of our corporate email.

This is the point at which I discovered that no one I knew, except the other technicians, would ever be able to do this without calling me for help. It was a nightmare to get setup and to make sure that I put in all the information needed, i.e: server Ip address, MX records, and Reverse DNS for our domain, just to create the SPF record. What a hassle! And none of my customers probably have the experience tinkering with their domain DNS Zone Records to even know how to add an SPF, let alone set it up correctly. This is when I searched google for an answer to my woes, and alas, Microsoft had the answer: An easy to use wizard! "Sender ID Framework SPF Record Wizard" that you just fill in a few questions and they will automatically generate your SPF record. This wizard won't automatically add it to your domains DNS zone file... however, a simple call to your domain registrar, or to us, can quickly solve that problem and make sure that all email that gets sent from your domain will end up in the inbox rather than the Junk Mail folder of the person it was sent to. You will also be doing your part to help mainstream this practice!

For more information, or to receive help setting up your SPF record, DNS Zone file, or make changes to your Domain, please visit us at http://www.theohiogroup.com/