Asking for help - How to set up SPF records for email marketing domain

Hi everybody,

First of all, please excuse me for me disturbing you. I'd like to ask for some help in setting up SPF records for a configuration.

The fact is that we are a small web agency working for small and medium-sized businesses. One of our services is the installation and setup of email marketing software. Our customers use opt-in lists, and we are pretty sure they are sending mail to people who have subscribed to these lists only, which are not very large (10.000 is the maximum).

In the process of setting things up properly, I've been studying the SPF record, and its implications.

I'd like to submit you my conclusions and get your comments, for I'm a newbie and not quite confident on my results.

The situation is the following:

• Our customer's domain is: http://aerobicyfitness.com/"]aerobicyfitness.com
• They send mail from this domain, which is hosted in a machine not controlled by us
• Actually, there's no SPF record, but there'll be no problem in setting it
• The e-mail marketing software is hosted in the domain: http://aerobicyfitness.espainucli.com/"] aerobicyfitness.espainucli.com
• Mails from this software will have a "from: newsletter [at] aerobicyfitness" header
• This is domain (http://espainucli.com/"]espainucli.com) is own by us. This machine's ip4 is 212.36.77.75
• bounces will be processed at bounces [at] aerbicyfitness

With this in mind, my proposal would be to set this 2 SPF records:

• SPF for http://aerobicyfitness.com/"]aerobicyfitness.com: "v=spf1 a mx ip4:212.36.77.75 ~all"
• SPF for http://espainucli.com/"]espainucli.com: "v=spf1 a mx -all"

My doubts are:

• Is this configuration correct? (we expect that the messages sent from the email marketing software receive a "pass", as well as any other emails coming from http://aerobicyfitness.com/"]aerobicyfitness.com)
• Will this setup avoid a suspicion of forged header?
• Should we use ip4 or include mechanism in the SPF record for http://aerobicyfitness.com/"]aerobicyfitness.com?
• Do we have to use a ptr mechanism? How exactly?
• Is it correct to use a bounce address under the domain of our customer, or would it be better to use a bounce [at] aerobicyfitness address?
• Any other comment? How can I improve the usage of SPF record? We are commited to authentication and honest email marketing, and want to avoid any possibility of being marked as spammer, and we also hate unsolicited commercial email...

Any comments from you will be highly appreciated. I can provide any further detail if you require, I'm honest and transparent about that issue

Yours,
________________________________________________________________________________
Marc Olivé i Valls | marc [at] elnucli | http://www.elnucli.com/"]www.elnucli.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manresa-Spain/El-Nucli/128809810270"] El Nucli és al Facebook | http://twitter.com/elnucli"]A vegades fem tweets!

El Nucli 9-08, S.L. | Avinguda de les Bases de Manresa 52-58 1er 3a | 08242 • Manresa
tel: 937.013.260 | fax: 937.013.011

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