{"id":1059,"date":"2016-05-31T21:34:21","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T02:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hostease.com\/blog\/?p=1059"},"modified":"2025-02-05T03:50:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T08:50:58","slug":"how-to-add-dkim-and-spf-records-using-cpanel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hostease.com\/blog\/cpanel\/how-to-add-dkim-and-spf-records-using-cpanel\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Add DKIM And SPF Records Using cPanel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One commonly overlooked area in cPanel is email authentication. Maybe it\u2019s one of those things that you never bothered checking out, or maybe it just looked a little intimidating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of whether you know it is there or what it does you may want to look at it when you get a moment of spare time. It can potentially reduce the spam mail that you receive as well as increase the chance that the mail you send out arrives in someone\u2019s inbox instead of a junk\/spam folder. You do want your messages delivered to someone\u2019s inbox don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cPanel email authentication<\/strong> allows you to enable DKIM keys, and SPF records for your domain very easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a little more information about each:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)<\/strong> \u2013 is used to verify that an inbound email message is actually from the stated sender, and that the message has not been altered or tampered with. If you enable DKIM, messages are digitally signed using a private key. The message recipient uses DNS to retrieve the sender\u2019s public key in order to verify the message\u2019s signature. If the signature is invalid, then the message is assumed to be forged and spam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/DomainKeys_Identified_Mail
http:\/\/www.dkim<\/a>.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SPF (Sender Policy Framework)<\/strong> \u2013 specifies which mail servers are permitted to send mail on behalf of your domain. Some mail servers don\u2019t accept incoming messages if it comes from a domain that doesn\u2019t have an SPF record. Without an SPF record a message may end up in the receivers spam\/junk folder, or it may be rejected completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sender_Policy_Framework
http:\/\/www.openspf.org\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enabling DKIM and SPF can help reduce the amount of spam you receive, and increase the likelihood that the messages you send out will arrive in the receivers inbox rather than in their spam\/junk folder. There are obviously no guarantees, and this assumes that your host has set up the mail server and records properly to begin with. It also assumes that the IP address that your website happens to be on or using isn\u2019t blacklisted for some reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before enabling either of these, make sure you have a good understanding of what they do. Adding a SPF record is a little more confusing in cPanel than DKIM. If you are not sure about the process, then you may want to ask your host for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After adding\/enabling one or both you should allow 24-48 hours (usually less) for the DNS records to propagate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If for some reason you added a custom SPF record in the past you would want to combine them rather than have two separate records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How To Enable DKIM And SPF In cPanel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Login to your cPanel account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locate the Mail section\/area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Select Email Authentication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scroll down to DKIM and click the Enable button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come back to the SPF section and click the Enable button for SPF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After enabling them you should see something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you need to customize the SPF record you can do so in the Advanced Settings area underneath the Enable button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The options are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n