Why Microsoft Exchange SPF Check Is Essential And How To Avoid SPF Validation Error
When it comes to preventing fraudulent emails, phishing attacks, and spoofing, IT administrators use several methods. Using an SPF record with DKIM and DMARC enables domain owners to add authentication to their emails. It also helps in preventing spoofing to a great extent. This article will be looking at why Microsoft Exchange SPF check is imperative. We’ll also look at measures that need to be taken to prevent SPF validation error Office 365 alerts.
Why Adding SPF Records Is Important For Microsoft Exchange Servers?
Adding an SPF record is highly important as it helps prevent malicious actors and adversaries from using your domain name to send fraudulent emails to others. Missing to add an SPF record or having an invalid SPF record will result in ‘SPF validation unavailable’ errors.
Once you add an SPF record to your domain, the recipient email server checks if an SPF record is present every time an email is sent from the domain. The list bearing the IP addresses or domain names is fetched and checked with the sender IP address if it is found. If the record matches, the email is processed further, or else will be rejected.
Why Exchange SPF Check Fail?
When it comes to ‘SPF validation failed’ alerts, several reasons contribute to an SPF check failure. If you receive an SPF check failed Gmail message, then it can be due to several reasons
- No Record: If you have no SPF record, you will get an ‘SPF validation check failed’ error.
- Multiple records: Every domain should have only one SPF record. If there are more records found, then it will throw an SPF validation error.
- Too many DNS lookups: An SPF record can only have a maximum of 10 DNS lookups; anything more will make the SPF record invalid.
- Syntax & Typo Errors: Ensure that the SPF record is appropriately constructed with the proper opening and closing tags.
How To Check And Validate SPF Records?
When it comes to checking and validating your SPF records, there are several online tools available. Remember, your job is not complete merely by creating an SPF record and adding it to your DNS database. One needs to ensure that the SPF record is valid and error-free and will not cause any issues when other email servers perform an SPF check.
The article has provided useful information on why SPF check is essential in Microsoft Exchange servers, why Exchange SPF checks fail, and how to prevent them. With it, one can conclude that adding SPF records is extremely important for every domain as it helps prevent spoofing to a great extent. Moreover, it adds authentication to the email messages being sent and increases the email’s chances of getting delivered to the intended recipient.
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