Ensure reliable email delivery by configuring your SPF record.
This article applies to All editions.
Important: Please note that in order for the Centercode platform to send emails out on behalf of your email domain, it's required your domain's SPF record has Centercode whitelisted. SPF configuration is mandatory. DKIM setup is optional and available upon request.
What is SPF?
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is an anti-forgery system, designed to detect and block email spoofing. An SPF record is associated to your company’s domain (ex: beta.yourdomain.com ) to determine whether or not an email server (your Centercode platform) is permitted to send email showing your email domain as a sender. So when using the Centercode platform to send emails, a Centercode email server is sending email on your behalf, often listed as "from" your domain (ex: beta@yourdomain.com).
Our company hasn't allowed Centercode on our SPF yet. What will happen? Why do some users still receive emails?
If your domain’s SPF record does not include Centercode or Centercode's Service IP address (more below), emails sent out by you may land in users’ spam folders (soft fail), be rejected by your own domain’s validation (hard fail) or delay the delivery of your emails. A minority of users will receive some your emails, but the majority will encounter email delivery issues.
Ensuring reliable email delivery
Please add the below to your SPF record to allow Centercode to send emails on your behalf.
v=spf1 mx include:_spf.centercode.com ~all
Centercode service IP addresses
If you find that your IT isn’t comfortable with whitelisting Centercode’s hosted infrastructure or have limited DNS query limitations, we offer the option to narrow access by using a specific IP address or range of specific IP addresses to send emails on your behalf. This option instead allows your specific hosted infrastructure to send emails on your behalf, rather than approving all of Centercode’s infrastructure.
That said, if your Centercode implementation is upgraded to a different infrastructure, you’ll need to update the existing IP address with the IP of the new infrastructure or emails may soft / hard fail again depending on your SPF records configuration. If you need a specific IP or range of IPs to enable this, please submit a request using our in-site chat or email help@centercode.com. Please include the details of your request, and we’ll help you get this configured.
Checking your company's SPF record
If you’re encountering any issues with email delivery or would like to verify your domain’s SPF record is configured, please utilize this free third-party web tool to check:
https://mxtoolbox.com/spf.aspx
MXToolbox:
- Use the orange dropdown and select SPF Record Lookup
- Enter your sending domain, like centercode.com if your sending email is help@centercode.com
- Hit enter or click SPF Record Lookup
- Look for _spf.centercode.com or the IP address provided to you by Centercode Support
What is DMARC and DKIM?
DMARC stands for Domain Message Authentication Reporting & Conformance. DKIM stands for Domain Keys Identified Mail. Along with SPF, these technical standards are used to increase email security and inhibit spam, spoofing, and phishing.
Requesting DKIM support
While DMARC is handled by your company's domain owner, you can request that Centercode assist in configuring DKIM for your Centercode implementation.
- Reach out to Centercode support through the live chat widget located within your Centercode implementation or email help@centercode.com.
- Centercode IT will return a public key meant for your IT
- Your IT must create a DKIM record in the format of
- "cc._domainkey.<your company's domain>.com"
- Set it's value in the format of
- "v=DKIM1;k=rsa; p="<the public key provided to you>"
- "v=DKIM1;k=rsa; p="<the public key provided to you>"