Sending to Gmail is failing

[#1]

Hi,

I see a number of messages on here which are similar to the issue I have. But I didn't see the way to resolve it. Can anyone assist?

I have a domain hosted by 123-reg. I'm using gmail as my email provider. Until a few days ago, I could send emails to gmail with my domain as the From address to gmail accounts. They are now getting discarded silently. I am using Plusnets SMTP server. If I send the email to an Microsoft account, it arrives but marked as Junk (so I guess MS is not too happy but allowing email through). If I send using the gmail email address as the From address, it works fine.

I am certainly no expert in email setup. But from a bit of reading, it sounds like the reliability could be improved by adding an SPF record to my domain at 123-reg. There is currently 1 SPF record there which I think is used if you are using 123-reg email (which I don't).

Can someone suggest what I need in the SPF record to get this working again?

I think I need to add an entry to allow google.com and I think also one for plus.net server.
If this is correct, I'm not sure what the Plusnet server should be. I see in the email headers
Received: from avasout-ptp-003.plus.net (84.93.230.244)
My assumption (which could be wrong) is that there must be multiple Plusnet servers and hence could change for each email.
Can anyone suggest/post their SPF records if this is indeed the correct course of action?
Any assistance greatfully received.
Pete

[#2 · Accepted solution]

@PeteW1 if you only ever send via the Plusnet Smtp servers ( relay.plus.net ) then your spf record should be

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

[#3]

Thanks.

That seems to have solved the issue.

[#4]

Why are you not using the SMTP server which belongs to your domain?

If you want to send email as fred@mydomain.co.uk then that email should be sent via mydomain.co.uk's SMTP server, not Plusnet's.

[#5]

Why are you not using the SMTP server which belongs to your domain?

I think many people only have basic domain registration with their registrar and this doesn't give access to the providers smtp servers, so they continue to use PN servers where they have a PN account.

Not ideal, I accept and as the OP has discovered can cause problems. Having a properly hosted email service for the domain is a much better (but not free!) solution.