I run a small number of social lists (mainly family history & philosophy) via a shared hosting account with dreamhost.com.  Generally it's been a trouble-free relationship but I have one niggling problem that I cannot break through - BTinternet bouncing emails saying there is no SPF (Sender Policy Framework) established for the domain or subdomain in question.

 

I've investigated setting up SPF entries and am about ready to take a stab at it but I have a problem in the way dreamhost handles mailman lists, in that they set them up on a subdomain - lists.mydomain.ext - and I only have access to the root domain (mydomain.ext) DNS entries and hence the SPF entries.   I've tried discussing this with dreamhost over a period of several months but so far no joy 😞

 

General reading on t'interwebs suggests that I can set up the SPF entries for a subdomain via the host domain DNS but I'm unsure - and don't want to completely fork things up!

 

Can anyone shed any light, please?

 

PS I note from Colin's announcement that Briskoda is also suffering from a similar BTinternet problem.

Edited 19 June, 20196 yr by StickyMicky
update

Your main domain's DNS zone should be where your subdomain records are anyway, so adding a TXT record for the lists subdomain will be fine (you should have an A record pointing to the IP address for the lists domain in there already?).

 

I don't know if it will help with the problem, but it'll definitely work as a DNS entry.

Thanks for the info, Mort.  I've included the DNS entries for our main family domain - maughan.co.uk - and it I can't see how or where to add an spf record for the "lists.maughan.co.uk" subdomain that our webhost insists on using for all mailman lists.

 

Non-editable DreamHost DNS records for maughan.co.uk:

These records were added automatically by DreamHost to provide services (such as web hosting or mail) which are active for this domain.

Record (maughan.co.uk zone)	Type	Value
	A	64.111.126.169
	MX	0 vade-in1.mail.dreamhost.com.
	MX	0 vade-in2.mail.dreamhost.com.
	TXT	v=spf1 mx include:netblocks.dreamhost.com include:spf1.mailchannels.net include: spf2.mailchannels.net -all
	NS	ns1.dreamhost.com.
	NS	ns2.dreamhost.com.
	NS	ns3.dreamhost.com.
28	CNAME	28.maughan.co.uk.cdn.cloudflare.net.
ftp.28	A	64.111.124.100
mysql.28	A	208.97.162.116
resolve-to.28	A	64.111.124.100
ssh.28	A	64.111.124.100
www.28	CNAME	www.28.maughan.co.uk.cdn.cloudflare.net.
resolve-to.www.28	A	64.111.124.100
_domainkey	TXT	o=~; [email protected]
maughan.co.uk._domainkey	TXT	k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDQOqhMxy0MalFgjAadxKIXwNVrocVrmUg b4FMy2Hu5PfcqKBeHyjgd9qmAe1obFnmOdfSwdnrBoS8s/RqVDku1ZIm241hmMw/pywFbfo+MeTyPSlr Ge4oKqUCcZiTEF4n0R6HprTuL3LO/MTdp9ofohdh8YnkIA0vYnAWPNsr8XQIDAQAB
_autodiscover._tcp	SRV	5 0 443 autoconfig.dreamhost.com
autoconfig	CNAME	autoconfig.dreamhost.com
child	A	64.111.125.154
ftp.child	A	64.111.125.154
ssh.child	A	64.111.125.154
www.child	A	64.111.125.154
ftp	A	64.111.126.169
lists	A	64.90.62.208
mail	A	64.90.62.162
mail	MX	0 vade-in1.mail.dreamhost.com.
mail	MX	0 vade-in2.mail.dreamhost.com.
mailboxes	A	66.33.205.233
www.mailboxes	A	66.33.205.233
mysql	A	208.97.162.116
ssh	A	64.111.126.169
webmail	A	69.163.136.138
www.webmail	A	69.163.136.138
www	A	64.111.126.169

Never used dreamhost, but if this is still up to date: https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/215414867-How-do-I-add-custom-DNS-records- you should be able to add a TXT record from the Manage Domains page – just make sure it's for lists.maughan.co.uk as you already have a SPF for .maughan.co.uk in there.

 

Thanks, Mort.

 

I've now found the wikipedia articles on email identification so that will keep me off the streets for a bit!

you can also use mxtoolbox to scan your domains email settings too.

 

From what I have found for a couple of mail lists that you are best off having the sender as the same domain, rather name "[email protected] on behalf of [email protected]" and having the replies sent back to the list (or a [email protected]).

BT seem to be the worst for eating messages / eating them, as I never get any NDRs back.