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SPF manual editing

rusty99
  • Edited

I went to edit my SPF record manually but found that the new interface (my host has belatedly upgraded cPanel) no longer seems to have an ability to edit the text string manually, only add or delete blocks, which makes it difficult to fine tune. Having to get host support to do it is cumbersome. Things like m, +m, + edit/remove cannot be done by the end user to create fully custom strings. It would be fine if the missing "+" edit options were there, but without them its a one size fits all.

But before I edit the record, can someone clarity the following on this page:

https://support.webcentral.au/docs/delivering-emails-to-gmail

Some use cases have the + option, some just "a mx" and some don't have either and its different for all it seems. 

I'm using Stable Server which has no + or "a mx" items recommended. What is the meaning of the + "a mx" items and why is it on some records and not others? For my usage I need to add an IP address as my domain name is managed by an external provider.

 

Comments

4 comments

Date Votes
  • quietFinn

    "a mx" and "+a +mx" mean the same.
    That "+" is "Qualifier", if there is no qualifier it defaults to "+"

     

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  • rusty99

    OK that's good to know. Some entries don't have "a mx" at all, but seem to have include:spf.server.com, does this mean include:spf has a mx directives somehow included or make them redundent?

    0
  • quietFinn

    Go to:
    https://mxtoolbox.com/spf.aspx
    and check for spf.server.com and you see what there is.

     

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  • rusty99

    Thanks, this is very helpful info. One server include references the other which seems to make the other include redundant. The SPF validation check for the host's recommended SPF string always comes back as too many lookups, 12 in total. 10 is the max I believe.

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