Mail bouncing to gmail

[#1]

I've found the area of the site that lets me add a DNS record. Thank you.

I found elsewhere on the forum a message which said the record should be:-

v=spf1 a mx include:_spf-internal.plus.net include:_spf-internal2.plus.net ~all

However this causes an error: Sorry, there was a problem
Error: Only the characters . - a-z 0-9 are allowed in the right field

ie no underscores and no tildes.

Any suggestions anyone?

Thank you.

[#2]

Hi @breslaw,

@Townman provided the instructions about 10 posts earlier: 
https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Mail-bouncing-to-gmail/m-p/1907102#M41985 

[#3]

@staffie2001uk Aah thank you. I stupidly read the 'please-add-spf-records' to do precisely that, rather than put it in literally.

[#4]

@breslaw to explain...

There is no facility in the customer facing DNS control to add TXT records. So in order to get round this, a script picks up the dummy mx record and creates the spf txt record in the backend dns control.

[#5]

Thanks @MisterW for the explanation. 

I would ask why there is no facility to add a DKIM record, via a similar script? 

If there is no technical reason not to, can PlusNet be persuaded to add the script?   

[#6]

DKIM isnt as simple as just adding a record. The outgoing server also requires to be configured to apply dkim signing for the domain.

TBH  given the deficiences in the PN mail & domain hosting , Id  consider moving your domain mail hosting to another supplier

[#7]

I run my own mail server, so the server side isn't a problem.  
I just can't save the DNS record.....

Mind you, it's not the end of the world not to have it as it is currently only gmail that, occasionally, bounce an e-mail.  

[#8]

@MisterW Thank you. Any idea how long it takes the plusnet folk to implement this and for it to take effect? I'm asking because today the gmail 'occasional illness' has become a pretty acute infection. I can't seem to be able to send anything to any gmail account without it being bounced for DKIM and SPF reasons.

[#9]

@MisterW Another question if I may. You've suggested that some users might want to consider moving their email hosting to another provider. I'd really like to avoid having to do this. I'm a retired software engineer; but I'm simply getting too old to have to learn sysadmin tricks. And I hate Google. And anyway, if you and your colleagues analysis is correct about gmail not really following the accepted rules (nor disclosing exactly which rules they are following), then why is it that other mail providers are not suffering similar problems? Or are they?  

[#10]

Gmail is not following the rules from the perspective that SPF and DKIM are not mandatory.  Making them mandatory is the rule bending, so if a mail provider implements these methods, they will not fall foul of Gmail's bullying antics.

Plusnet has implemented DKIM for *.plus.com email domains and SPF is available for hosted domains, but both is not available for either (nor necessary).

[#11]

then why is it that other mail providers are not suffering similar problems? Or are they?  

simple answer is we don't know. Many ISPs have dropped their provision of email , leaving it to specialist email providers. These as @Townman  says almost certainly implement SPF & DKIM , certainly the two I'm familiar with do. This just leaves the people using domain forwarding which may not implement SRS as the most likely to continue having a problem

[#12]

@MisterW 

... and indeed, SRS makes up the holy trinity of non-mandatory methods where email anti-spam measures are concerned.

It should be noted that where domain forwarding is concerned, (ideally) the forwarding service also needs their own SPF and DKIM settings, for Gmail will then see the email as coming from the forwarding service, not the originator.

[#13]

@Townman  SPF possibly but I thought the idea with DKIM was that the signature stayed intact and so could still be checked using the originating domain keys

[#14]

simple answer is we don't know. Many ISPs have dropped their provision of email , leaving it to specialist email providers.

So if push comes to shove, where (ie to which email provider) would you suggest people like myself should migrate?

[#15]

If you use multiple mailboxes and/or aliases with your domain then I'd suggest you look at ecohosting https://www.ecohosting.co.uk/email.html or  mythic-beasts https://www.mythic-beasts.com/hosting . Both cost around £20/yr for 2GB storage which is similar to what the PN  system allows