As of Plesk 7.1.4, Plesk allows us to add TXT records in the DNS for a domain, thus allowing us to add SPF records. SPF is, in theory, a good way to stop spam. In short, SPF allows you to tell the world, which mailservers are allowed to send emails using your domain in the From address.
When I send a mail from the init1.nl domain to an SPF-enabled mailserver, that server checks the SPF record for init1.nl to see if my mailserver is allowed to send email for the domain init1.nl.
The server is listed The delivering server is listed, so the receiving party gives my email a pass. The receiving party can now choose to skip CPU-intensive spam checks and deliver my email straight away.
The server is not listed The delivering server is not listed, the receiving party can now choose to drop my email, or add extra points for spam tagging. Since the sending party has forged the From address chances are very high that the email is unwanted.
Plesk has added the ability to add TXT records in version 7.1.4. This allows us to add SPF records to your domain. First we need to create an SPF record. The easiest way to do this, is at https://spf.pobox.com/wizard.html. Enter the domain name you want to create an SPF record for after “Let’s set up SPF records for” and click begin. The easiest would be to scroll down to “a:” and enter the hostname for your domain. In my case this is rudeboy.init1.nl. This is also the only host permitted to send email for my domain, so I’m done pretty quickly, you might have to set other options. I did say “yes” to the “-all” option since no other servers are allowed to send mail for my domain. At the bottom of the page, the resulting SPF record is created in a textarea. Copy the content of the area to your clipboard.
Open your Plesk panel and go to the domain your want to add your record to. Click the DNS button.
Now, in the dropdown menu, select the TXT option and click the “Add” button.
Leave the input field after “Enter domain name” empty we don’t need to change this.
In the input field after “Enter TXT record”, paste the generated SPF record. Click “Save” and you’re all done.
