General Discussion - Authenticate email

Authenticate email

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Topic: Authenticate email

Posted By: RCorr
Subject: Authenticate email
Date Posted: 14 December 2011 at 7:46pm

Hello,

My company email host is Google mail and want to authenticate our email addresses. This is my first time going through this process.

I have DNS TXT record into our domain and all that is left to do is to click "start authentication". This step may take up to 48 hours to implement. Before I proceed, I would like to know if there may be any problems that may occur and what are the fallback options? Also, will the process disrupt the current email service?

I would like to hear your experiences with authentication emails. I just want to get a sense of the process before going through it.

Thanks,

RCorr

Replies:

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 15 December 2011 at 10:15am

When you say 'authenticate our email addresses' and DNS TXT records, are you referring to SPF records, or DomainKeys?

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Posted By: RCorr
Date Posted: 15 December 2011 at 2:14pm

Thanks for the reply, Bruce.

I am referring to DomainKeys. Although after reading more about SPF records, it seems that is wise to set that up to. Are DomainKeys and SPF records both needed to authenticate emails addresses or can one be implemented without the other?

RCorr

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 15 December 2011 at 3:08pm

Neither method is a way to authorise emails. They are simply another anti spam check that the receiving mail server can do to check that the email is not spam.

SPF records are the simplest to set by creating a SPF or TXT record on in your DNS zone that simply lists the mail servers that are allowed to send email for your domain, if the email is sent from a non listed mail server then it maybe flagged as spam.

DomainKeys are more difficult to setup as you need to set it up on both the mail server and DNS zone for the domain. With this system the mail server includes a DKIM signature with parts of your email message, the receiving mail server gets your public key from your DNS zone.

DomainKeys are a better system, but most mail servers do not support it, and only show that the message is sent from a mail server that is allowed to send email for your domain. Mail servers that support DomainKeys will often only give a very low spam score if the email does not have the correct DKIM signature.

Our own mail servers give a score of -2 if SPF of DomainKey is OK, and +2 if not, which means that most emails even if they fail would not be classed as spam unless other indications top the spam score above 10.

The reason for this is that many people don't setup SPF records of DomainKeys correctly, or have workers that will send emails from other SMTP servers, like their ISP's mail servers which would not be listed or not be setup to include the DKIM signature.

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Posted By: RCorr
Date Posted: 04 January 2012 at 3:32pm

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 04 January 2012 at 4:11pm

You would need to consult your mail server documentation as different mail servers would have different ways to implement DomainKeys.

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Posted By: RCorr
Date Posted: 05 January 2012 at 9:44pm

I did some more research and found a youtube video on implementing DKIM on Google Apps. It seems straight forward. If, for whatever the reason may be, is there a way to disable DKIM on Google Apps.

I read that DKIM can be disabled, but couldn't find how - even in Google Apps. If any one experience setting up DKIM in google apps, please let me know.

Posted By: RCorr
Date Posted: 06 January 2012 at 8:38pm

I followed up more on this topic with one of our consultant and to disable DKIM simply remove the TXT record. Easy enough and feeling more comfortable with it until...smartphones (Blackberries) was brought up.

I read that email messages received on a blackberry will go through the provider (RIM) first. I may be mistaken. Are there any known complications with sending and receiving emails from a blackberry with a domain that has DKIM enabled?

Thanks in advance

Posted By: RCorr
Date Posted: 12 January 2012 at 4:30pm

I am just checking in if anyone knows if receiving/sending emails on a blackberry device will be affected by implementing DKIM on a mail server?

Thanks,

RCorr