If you haven’t heard the news yet, and/or you’re living under the sea, well, let’s just say that you need to add a _dmarc record if you want to send emails to Google or Yahoo. (or everywhere really!)
If you don’t want to hear my ramble about DMARC, just add a TXT record to _dmarc.your-domain.com with the value:
1v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:your_email@yourdomain.com
Notice how p=none; actually means that it allows anything and everything all of the time. Gradually, you can move to a more restrictive policy like p=quarantine or p=reject.; For me personally I set it to p=reject because I know anything and everything all of the time. A little bit of everything all of the time.
I would not recommend setting it to p=none all of the time, as it’s basically useless at preventing spoofed email. Thus same as having no DMARC basically.
Official announcement:
- Google: https://blog.google/products/gmail/gmail-security-authentication-spam-protection/
- Yahoo: https://blog.postmaster.yahooinc.com/post/730172167494483968/more-secure-less-spam
You can check if it’s working by using a tool like https://mxtoolbox.com/. It should say DMARC record published.
Preface
Let’s talk for real for a moment: Google is everywhere; most companies use it. And I’m not just talking about Gmail; Google is actually a very large corporation that many others rely on.
So, you may ask, what even is DMARC and why is it being used? DMARC (Also known as Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) helps prevent email spoofing and phishing attacks by allowing domain owners to enforce strict authentication policies and receive feedback on email authentication failures.
DMARC Assistant
You can and should use DMARC Assistant when you want to control everything more strictly: https://www.kitterman.com/dmarc/assistant.html
And boom! Now you have strict DMARC to prevent spoofing. Happy sending emails!
Epilogue
Are you looking for a provider to host your emails? Try GlassHost.NET; We have a clean IP reputation for your fresh emails! We’re very strict regarding our IP use case/policy, so don’t try to send mass/spam email because you will be terminated!
If you do not send mail daily, you can opt-in for our shared web hosting instead! This will elevate your email deliverability as there are other users who are sending email daily, ensuring the IP is warm.
P.S. For shared web hosting, you can just use the mailer without hosting any website with us!
Do you have any other tips and tricks that I don’t know? Let me know in the comments or at me@darrennathanael.com :p
Header Photo by Jenna Raine on Tumblr
Thumbnail Photo by Ranurte on Unsplash