[pmwiki-users] OT: SPF (was: Re: gmane pmwiki user archive not showing my emails)

[Neil Herber (nospam)]

On 2008-01-31 pmwiki at 911networks.com is rumoured to have said:
> > Clearly, as Neil told me, a missing SPF record should never
> > > contribute for an email to be classed as spam.
> 
> Yes it is, and should be, this indicates either:
> 1. Badly configured mail services. or
> 2. A spam bot
> 

If a domain has an SPF record, then it should be taken as authoritative. 
So if the SPF test fails, the mail is spam.

Many domains, such as hotmail.com, have SPF records that allow for 
soft-fails.

If a domain *does not have* an SPF record (as in Hans' case) then the 
lack of such a record cannot be used to declare mail from that domain 
spam. Yahoo.com does not have SPF records.

SPF records are voluntary, not mandatory. I would never run a domain 
without an SPF record, because it can be very effective at preventing 
spoofing. But I would never reject mail from a domain because it lacked 
an SPF record.

-- 
Neil Herber
Corporate info at http://www.eton.ca/