Mailing List Archive: SPF: Help

Unsure of contents of SPF record

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al at dvdindustry

Jun 2, 2009, 7:04 PM

Post #1 of 6 (1273 views)
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Unsure of contents of SPF record

Hi All.

I am the post master of a mail server that I have
built. It has its own dedicated internet connection and IP address. It is
used to send out two different email Newsletters.

The only receiving it does is the bounce messages from the sendouts, or
complaint reporting at abuse@ or postmaster@ (enrolled in JMRP)

The DNS for this server is taken care of by the domain registrar.

I have used a SPF record wizard to generate an SPF record and it is
currently attached to our DNS but I believe there may be a mistake in it.

The record as it exists at the moment is:

v=spf1 ip4:60.XXX.XXX.XX mx mx:mail.thenameofdomain.com.au ~all

I have been researching this and I know believe that it should read:

v=spf1 ip4:60.XXX.XXX.XX ~all

because it is only used as an outgoing mail server to send these two
Newsletters (and receive bounces and complaint reporting)

could anybody help me with this.

Cheers
Alan Netherclift
Scribal Publishing
03 9428 2727
<mailto:al [at] dvdindustry> al [at] dvdindustry

Scribal Publishing
<http://www.scribalpublishing.com.au/images/Signature/ScriPubSig.gif>

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rob.macgregor at gmail

Jun 3, 2009, 12:15 AM

Post #2 of 6 (1213 views)
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Re: Unsure of contents of SPF record [In reply to]

On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 03:04, Alan Netherclift <al [at] dvdindustry> wrote:
> Hi All.
>
> I have used a SPF record wizard to generate an SPF record and it is
> currently attached to our DNS but I believe there may be a mistake in it.

The Wizard suffers from GIGO - your level of understanding directly
impacts the quality of the resulting record ;)

> The record as it exists at the moment is:
>
> v=spf1 ip4:60.XXX.XXX.XX mx mx:mail.thenameofdomain.com.au ~all
>
> I have been researching this and I know believe that it should read:
>
> v=spf1 ip4:60.XXX.XXX.XX ~all

In general, that is correct. Where your domain sends through a single
host, that format of record is the right one.

--
Please keep list traffic on the list.

Rob MacGregor
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he
doesn't become a monster. Friedrich Nietzsche

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prashanthd at cdac

Jun 3, 2009, 1:09 AM

Post #3 of 6 (1212 views)
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Re: Unsure of contents of SPF record [In reply to]

If you are sure you are only going go use that one machine to send out
your mails, you would be better off publishing a harder SPF record, i.e.
v=spf1 ip4:60.xxx.xxx.xx -all
instead of
v=spf1 ip4:60.xxx.xxx.xx ~all

The harder setting means that in case of attempts to spoof your domain by
others, people can reject it outright rather than having to run the SPF
Soft Failed messages through further tests.

Regards,
Prashanth Chengi
National PARAM SuperComputing Facility
System Administration and Networking Group
C-DAC Pune
Ext-183
Mob: 09766044870

--
He who fights with monsters might take care,
lest he thereby become a monster.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

On Wed, 3 Jun 2009, Rob MacGregor wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 03:04, Alan Netherclift <al [at] dvdindustry> wrote:
>> Hi All.
>>
>> I have used a SPF record wizard to generate an SPF record and it is
>> currently attached to our DNS but I believe there may be a mistake in it.
>
> The Wizard suffers from GIGO - your level of understanding directly
> impacts the quality of the resulting record ;)
>
>> The record as it exists at the moment is:
>>
>> v=spf1 ip4:60.XXX.XXX.XX mx mx:mail.thenameofdomain.com.au ~all
>>
>> I have been researching this and I know believe that it should read:
>>
>> v=spf1 ip4:60.XXX.XXX.XX ~all
>
> In general, that is correct. Where your domain sends through a single
> host, that format of record is the right one.
>
> --
> Please keep list traffic on the list.
>
> Rob MacGregor
> Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he
> doesn't become a monster. Friedrich Nietzsche
>
>
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> --
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> believed to be clean.
>

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steve at teamITS

Jun 3, 2009, 7:02 AM

Post #4 of 6 (1220 views)
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RE: Unsure of contents of SPF record [In reply to]

Alan Netherclift wrote on 6/2/2009 9:04:45 PM:

> v=spf1 ip4:60.XXX.XXX.XX mx mx:mail.thenameofdomain.com.au ~all

Since "mail.thenameofdomain.com.au" doesn't exist you're
probably hiding it which hinders our ability to help you. However my
guess is that "mail.thenameofdomain.com.au" probably doesn't have an MX
record of its own. See the Common Mistakes FAQ link below.

-----
SPF FAQ: http://www.openspf.org/FAQ
Common mistakes: http://www.openspf.org/FAQ/Common_mistakes

- Steve Yates
- ITS, Inc.
- And God so loved the world, He didn't sent a committee...

~ Taglines by Taglinator: www.srtware.com ~

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al at dvdindustry

Jun 3, 2009, 6:02 PM

Post #5 of 6 (1217 views)
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RE: Unsure of contents of SPF record [In reply to]

Sorry Steve,

I've been taught by many a moderator on forums, not to
include details.

The IP Address is 60.242.143.46
The name of the mail server is smail.scribalpublishingmail.com.au
At the domain scribalpublishingmail.com.au

Our DNS is taken care of by our domain registrar and I have already gotten
him to change the SPF record from

v=spf1 ip4:60.242.143.46 mx mx:smail.scibalpublishingmail.com.au ~all

to

v=spf1 ip4:60.242.143.46 ~all

The domain name is specifically for this mail server and there is no website
connected with it. The only hardware attached to the internet connection is
the mail server.
Postfix with virtual users and domains(MySQL) SMTP-AUTH and TLS, Amavisd,
SpamAssassin and ClamAV, Courier and SquirrelMail on a Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
server.
I have registered with Hotmails JMRP, and have organised reverse DNS for the
Domain.

I had used an online tester at blacklistalert.org that had said that there
was a CNAME associated with the DNS that was causing a problem, and I have
since had our domain registrar to remove the CNAME reference.

I am self taught and still quite new to this, I built the mail server myself
and have been running it for the small company that I work for nearly a year
now. It is used exclusively to send out two Newsletters.

I would be very grateful if you could check it out with what ever tools you
use and let me know if there are any troubles.

I am very aware that I still have a lot to learn
Thank you for your help.

Cheers, Al
Alan Netherclift
Scribal Publishing
al [at] dvdindustry
03 9428 2727
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Yates [mailto:steve [at] teamITS]
Sent: Thursday, 4 June 2009 12:02 AM
To: spf-help [at] v2
Subject: RE: [spf-help] Unsure of contents of SPF record

Alan Netherclift wrote on 6/2/2009 9:04:45 PM:

> v=spf1 ip4:60.XXX.XXX.XX mx mx:mail.thenameofdomain.com.au ~all

Since "mail.thenameofdomain.com.au" doesn't exist you're
probably hiding it which hinders our ability to help you. However my
guess is that "mail.thenameofdomain.com.au" probably doesn't have an MX
record of its own. See the Common Mistakes FAQ link below.

-----
SPF FAQ: http://www.openspf.org/FAQ
Common mistakes: http://www.openspf.org/FAQ/Common_mistakes

- Steve Yates
- ITS, Inc.
- And God so loved the world, He didn't sent a committee...

~ Taglines by Taglinator: www.srtware.com ~

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steve at teamITS

Jun 3, 2009, 9:10 PM

Post #6 of 6 (1222 views)
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RE: Unsure of contents of SPF record [In reply to]

Alan Netherclift wrote on 6/3/2009 8:02:28 PM:

> I've been taught by many a moderator on forums, not to
> include details.

Well in this case the details actually help you quite a bit,
otherwise it's a guessing game.

> Our DNS is taken care of by our domain registrar and I have already
gotten
> him to change the SPF record from
>
> v=spf1 ip4:60.242.143.46 mx mx:smail.scibalpublishingmail.com.au ~all

It's invalid as I thought because there is no MX for the domain
"smail.scibalpublishingmail.com.au."

> v=spf1 ip4:60.242.143.46 ~all

Much shorter and accurately describes the sending server.
Remember to change it to "-all" when you're done testing.

-----
SPF FAQ: http://www.openspf.org/FAQ
Common mistakes: http://www.openspf.org/FAQ/Common_mistakes

- Steve Yates
- ITS, Inc.
- That's fine in practice, but it'll never work in theory.

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