SPF entries are used to protect against spoofing. SPF records are used to define mail servers and domains that are allowed to send emails for this domain.

In the SPF Tester, the diagnosis is made whether:

  • the SPF entries of the domain to be checked are syntactically correct. The input option in SPF Record helps with troubleshooting in the field SPF Record.
  • the SPF record of the domain to be checked authorises the specified IP address.

The E-mail is sent from the address "spf@seppmail.io".

Field

Description

anchor link Domain

Enter the domain

anchor link IP Sender-Server

Enter the IP server from which to send

anchor link HELO Sender-Server

optional: Allows the HELO parameter to be entered (rarely necessary)

anchor link SPF Record

optional: Allows you to enter your own SPF record additions and thus quickly test whether and what effects these changes have.

anchor link Check Type

There are three options:

  • SEPPmail: Fuzzier check of the SPF entries, can be used for troubleshooting
  • RFC: Tighter check of SPF entries - this check must ultimately be successful
  • Strict: Even tighter check of SPF entries. A successful check according to RFC should generally be sufficient for delivery. Depending on the mail provider, delivery problems can be caused by small errors that are difficult to identify. The SPF entries should therefore ideally also pass the Strict check.

Via Query, the test is started.

Via the Share test results button empty, the result of the test is copied to the clipboard as a URL and can thus be passed on to other people.

The following information is displayed.

Output

Description

anchor link Status

Overall result with corresponding icon and status message in English, for example

  • green checkmark empty - sender SPF authorized  
  • red cross empty - SPF fail - not authorized  
  • orange exclamation mark empty - SPF permanent error: unknown mechanism found: ipv4:127.0.0.0/8 -all  

anchor link SPF Record

Shows the SPF entries available on the server (supplemented by the manually entered SPF entries in the field above, if applicable). Example:

v=spf1 include:_spf.ch.seppmail.cloud ip6:2a01:4f8:1c1c:9716::1 ip4:116.203.193.74 ~all

anchor link Include

Shows the resolved includes (if any).

anchor link Flattened SPF

Flattened display of the original entry to reduce the number of DNS queries. If the original entry exceeds the threshold of more than 10 DNS queries, it can be replaced with this output.

Important limitations: The flattened record can be very long and therefore truncated (either by the DNS provider's administration interface or DNS clients evaluating this SPF record). Likewise, changes in include, redirect, a or mx directives are not updated, which can lead to possible SPF errors in the long term.