Setup SPF Record to allow sending email from Google Apps and Bluehost

Question

I need to be able to send emails from Google Apps (my gmail account) and from my website which is hosted on Bluehost. How do I create an SPF record that will allow me to send emails from those locations but will restrict sending emails from other locations?

Answer 1

Like this:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com a a:abc.example.org a:xyz.example.org -all

This says, include Google's SPF record (which will allow all their mail servers to send mail on behalf of your domain), and allow anything in this domain which has an A record, and specifically allow 2 other hosts by verifying their A records. Fail everything else.

For this to work, you will need to know exactly which mail servers outbound mail will come from via Bluehost. I don't know much about them, but that might be your own server, or their outbound servers. If the latter, you might also be able to use another 'include' clause to include their record so you don't have to keep up-to-date with any changes they make.

This site is a useful tool. Google offers others. http://tools.bevhost.com/spf/