Helping you to set up your SPF records to prevent email forgery By Peter M. Abraham June 2005 The leading method in the fight against email forgery is SPF (short for Sender Policy Framework). SPF works by you or your email provider publishing identity records for each domain name and machine name (dynamicnet.net is a domain name; mail.dynamicnet.net is a machine name) which can either send mail or be abused by forgeries. Basically, when an email is received by a mail server, prior to accepting the email for delivery, the mail server checks if the machine that sent the email claiming to be from a given domain (or machine name) is allowed to send email. If the identification states no, then the email was forged (spoofed).  Based on mail server settings, the email is either outright rejected or passed on (just in case there as a problem with identification). Parallels H-Sphere, the hosting automation system we utilize allows you (if you are one of our Parallels H-Sphere customers) or our system administration staff to easily set up SPF records. If only you and your staff are the only ones to ever send out email (meaning, you do not use 3rd parties to send out email on your behalf), setting up SPF is extremely easy.  We have written instructions at http://dynamicnet.net/customer/Parallels H-Sphere/user/html/spf.html Simply log into your Parallels H-Sphere control panel at https://cp.dynamicnet.net:8443/, go to your Email Manager, and click the Off button next to SPF to turn on SPF.  Then select "Fail" (as the safest option), and submit.  Please do not select "pass" as this means anyone can use your domain for email. What if you have 3rd parties like Authorize.net, another merchant gate way, a mailing list provider, etc. send out emails on your behalf? In this case, we need you to please let our support department know the various parties who can send out email on your behalf (i.e. they do the emailing, but the emails appear to come from your domain name). We will then work with you to construct the proper SPF record which will allow these partners and vendors to email on your behalf; and we will publish those SPF records for you. Using the K.I.S.S.  --- keep it simple, smile -- approach, most of you should be ok just using the Parallels H-Sphere point-and-click interface to turn on SPF for your domains.  However, if you are not sure of the best course, please do contact us for help. Please contact our support department toll free at 1-888-887-6727 if you have any questions. Thank you.