SPF, which means Sender Policy Framework, is an e-mail safety system, which is used to confirm whether an email message is sent by an official server. Using SPF protection for a given domain name will stop the forging of email addresses made with the domain. In layman's terms: activating this function for a domain generates a particular record in the Domain Name System (DNS) which contains the IP addresses of the servers that are allowed to send e-mail messages from mailboxes under the domain. As soon as this record propagates worldwide, it exists on all of the DNS servers that direct the Internet traffic. When some e-mail message is sent, the first DNS server it goes through checks if it originates from an accredited server. If it does, it is forwarded to the destination address, but if it does not come from a server listed in the SPF record for the domain, it's discarded. Thus nobody can mask an email address and make it look as if you're distributing spam messages. This method is also called email spoofing.
SPF Protection in Website Hosting
If you host your domains in a website hosting account on our end and we handle the e-mails for them, you'll be able to activate SPF protection for them with a couple of clicks inside your Hepsia Control Panel. The service is available in a section of its own where you will be able to view which domains are already protected. For the ones which aren't, you can activate the SPF protection service and set up various things at the same time - the hostnames of the mail servers that are allowed to send messages from your email addresses, the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses of the servers, and to set a rule that messages can be sent only when your domains use our MX records. The aforementioned option is the most secure one, and you can use it in the event that we handle the e-mail addresses for your domains and do not use some other e-mail service provider. The newly created records will be activated within 24 hours and nobody will be able to fake the FROM field in an e-mail with your e-mail addresses.
SPF Protection in Semi-dedicated Hosting
When you have a semi-dedicated server account with us, you will be able to protect your email addresses by enabling the SPF security service for every domain in the account with just a few mouse-clicks. This can be done in the Emails section of our Hepsia Control Panel which is included with the semi-dedicated accounts and even in case you have no previous practical experience with these kinds of issues, you won't have any troubles to enable the protection. Everything that you will have to do is to find a domain from a drop-down menu and then type in the mail server hostname and IPv4 or IPv6 address. When the new record propagates, messages from your emails will be sent globally only if they were sent from that server. When your e-mail addresses are handled by our company and not by some third-party supplier, you'll also be able to take advantage of an option for emails to be sent only if the domain name includes our MX records and the latter is the safest option. In case you have any kind of questions related to thisfunction, you can get in touch with our tech support team 24/7.