Using plusnet in SPF record..

[#1]

So i got my SPF record fixed and accepted by the big boys yahoo and gmail by using avasout-peh-002.plus.net instead of relay.plus.net.

My question is are there anymore subdomains that plusnet uses for it's outgoing mail? - eg

avasout-peh-001.plus.net

avasout-peh-003.plus.net

?

Thanks

[#2]

avasout-ptp-002.plus.net seems to exist, but I'm not currently able to ascertain whether it is involved in any SPF configs/usage. Just that the receiving mail server appears to think there's no related SPF record for the PN account.

All I can say is that (copied from some e-mail headers, with <myaccount> being my currently existing Plusnet account and <myemail> being the other part of the e-mail address)

Received-SPF: none (mailhub-cam-d.mythic-beasts.com: domain of <myaccount>.plus.com does not provide an SPF record) client-ip=84.93.230.235; envelope-from=<myemail>@<myccount>.plus.com; helo=avasout-ptp-002.plus.net;
Received: from [84.93.230.235] (port=54513 helo=avasout-ptp-002.plus.net)

[#3]

Follow the advice posted in several places elsewhere...

Mitigating email delivery failures (notably Gmail)

Many users are reporting challenging issues in sending emails to some of the big email players. Some of those providers (notably Gmail, but only in respect of their free email accounts) have mandated the SPF & DKIM non-mandatory RFCs on other email providers, such as Plusnet. This can bring about significant difficulty when attempting to send emails using the various Plusnet and vISP legacy email services.

How you mitigate Google's behaviour very much depends on how you send your emails via Plusnet's SMTP servers and which Plusnet vISP email brands you use.

• A Plusnet email account or a legacy brand (for example MAAF) email account
• you@youraccount.plus.com (native Plusnet email address)
• you@yourdomain.co.uk which is registered and hosted by Plusnet (or MAAF)
• you@yourdomain.co.uk which is registered elsewhere and hosted by Plusnet
• you@yourdomain.co.uk which is hosted elsewhere which forwards  mail to your Plusnet (or MAAF) mailbox

The vISP email brands have different level of mitigation capability - for some, the only practical solution might be to migrate your email hosting elsewhere.

Native Plusnet email address

If a user sends email using a from address of you@youraccount.plus.com then DKIM signing will be applied to the email automatically (and pass Gmail's imposed restrictions) if the SMTP server is configured to require authentication. Somewhat unhelpfully, Plusnet's email setup guide suggests that such authentication is NOT required if connecting over a Plusnet connection. Whilst technically true, operational complications can occur and it is much tidier to just enable authentication with the "use the same account settings as the incoming server" option.

Your own domain

If you send from your own domain name, then DKIM signing is not available and you will need to configure SPF instead. How to do this depends on where your domain is hosted - by Plusnet or by third party.

Plusnet fully hosted and registered domain

For Plusnet brand registered and managed domains, SPF configuration is facilitated by the addition of a TXT record in the domain's DNS settings. Plusnet's DNS configuration tool for hosted domains does not permit the creation of TXT records. However, there is an unsupported "facilitation" which will create an SPF record for a hosted domain.

On the basis that your account ALREADY has a hosted domain:

• Log into the user portal
• Go to Manage Account
• Manage Your Domains (Manage your domains link)
• Configure domain name
• Create an "Additional DNS records (Advanced)" as follows...

For the avoidance of doubt leave the left side blank, exactly as shown. It might take Plusnet's systems up to 6 hours to generate the SPF record.

If your email service is provided by one of the legacy vISP brands (for example MAAF) acquired over the years by Plusnet, similar options are not available to you.

Domain name registered and managed elsewhere (third party)

There are two scenarios here:

1. Plusnet hosts the email service for the domain
2. The domain forwards email to the native Plusnet email address

THESE ARE NOT THE SAME.  Ideally email forwarding should be avoided as it brings about numerous complications - you should use the DOMAIN's email servers to received and send your domain email, not Plusnet's.

To configure SPF on a domain name registered elsewhere, you must use your domain name provider's DNS configuration tools to set up the applicable SPF record:

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

or

v=spf1 include:_spf-internal.madasafish.com include:_spf-internal2.madasafish.com include:_spf-external.madasafish.com -all

[#4]

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@7up wrote:

So i got my SPF record fixed and accepted by the big boys yahoo and gmail by using avasout-peh-002.plus.net instead of relay.plus.net.

My question is are there anymore subdomains that plusnet uses for it's outgoing mail? - eg

avasout-peh-001.plus.net

avasout-peh-003.plus.net

?

Thanks

---

So it turns out that avasout-peh-001.plus.net does indeed exist (makes sense given that 002 does lol). Some of my mail was still being rejected but having implmented the changes mentioned in the reply above, i'm hopeful that will be fixed now.