Set up or Modify SPF

Written By Marissa Fegan (Super Administrator)

Updated at August 12th, 2021

VIPRE recommends setting up SPF for your domain to help reduce spam and ensure that your domain reputation is maintained.

Introduction to the Sender Policy Framework

The Sender Policy Framework, or SPF, is a mechanism used to help reduce spam sent to or from your domain. Effectively what the SPF does is it allows you to declare which internet hosts are allowed to send an email purporting to be from your domain. This means that spammers can't "hijack" your domain and pretend to be you while sending out their nefarious messages. Similarly, other organizations that have set up SPF can't be spoofed, so you won't get spam that appears to come from their domains.

Follow the steps below to set up or modify SPF to work with VIPRE. 

Set up SPF to work with VIPRE Email Security

When you introduce VIPRE Email Security into your environment as part of a holistic security solution, you will need to account for it when you configure your SPF records. If you are not currently using SPF, this should be relatively easy to set up and you can just follow the instructions below. If you already have SPF set up for your domain, you may need to reconcile your existing SPF records with the suggestions below, adding and removing tokens as appropriate. An example is provided.

SPF is set up by using a TXT type of DNS record, which means you will have to work with your DNS registrar to create or modify these records. If you don't know who your DNS registrar is, refer to Related Articles for more information on updating MX Records.

The following example will simply authorize VIPRE Email Security to send email on behalf of your domain.

v=spf1 include:spf.mailanyone.net -all

 If you already have an SPF record setup for your domain, you can just usually add the following statement to the end of the SPF record, before the “all” token:

include:spf.mailanyone.net

Note, however, that if VIPRE Email Security is taking over email delivery for your domain, you may want to remove some or all of your pre-existing authorized senders.

For example; if your current SPF record is:

v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all

You will need to add the new statement to update it to the following:

v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf.mailanyone.net -all