Keep yourself out of spam folders

To prevent your outbound email from being sent to spam folders you have to add an SPF record in your domain’s DNS record.

SPF (Email Security) – Keep yourself out of spam folders
SPF is a special DNS record you need to create so that other mail servers know we are allowed to send an email on your behalf. You probably already have a record created, for example with Office 365 it looks like:

v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com ~all

If you want to add our server as permitted to also send on behalf of your domain, you should add our IP like this:

Our IP Range: 5.135.214.48/30 and 91.134.208.32

Example new SPF record:
v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com ip4:5.135.214.48/30 ip4:91.134.208.32 include:algarthosting.com ~all

Adding the above record basically says for your domain, that the outlook.com server and our IP are allowed to send on your behalf. You basically just insert “+ip4:5.135.214.48” into the middle of your existing record, or if you don’t have an existing record, make a new DNS record like:

DNS Record Type: TXT
v=spf1 ip4:5.135.214.48/30 ip4:91.134.208.32 include:algarthosting.com ~all

That’s all you have to do as far as SPF is concerned, please allow up to 24 hours for the DNS to take effect.

We do have 3 different options in the shop settings regarding which mail server to use. Following are the 3 options you could use when the system sends emails to your customers.

1. Use our mail server with SPF record added in your domain’s DNS record – Default Option
2. Use our mail server without the SPF record added to your domain DNS record.
   • This option is preferred if you don’t have a domain name and you are using third-party email provider such as Hotmail, Gmail, yahoo, live etc
3. Use my own mail server.
   • This option is preferred if you want to use your own email server, please make sure that you have added SMTP Host, SMTP Port (default is 25), SMTP Method, SMTP Username and SMTP Password. The system will verify the mail server settings when you click on the update button and if there are any issues it will display a message. Please make sure that you act accordingly in the case of error otherwise system WILL NOT SEND emails so it is important that you do.
   • On a daily basis, the system will verify your mail server settings automatically and in the event of connection failure if will change it change the settings back to option 1 by default so at least emails are going out until you fix any issues with your mail server.
   • You can also use the Gmail mail server as an outgoing mail server. Please check this document.
     • Please make sure that “Enforce access to less secure apps for all users” is enabled, to enable this please follow this document.
     • Please note that google applies a “Daily sending limit“. Please read this document for more information. You can increase the limit by using “SMTP Relay Service” however you will need to make some changes in your Gmail settings, please refer to this document.
   • You can also use office365’s SMTP mail server as an outgoing mail server. Please check this document.
     • You may need to enable the Legacy TLS, please read this document.
   • You can also use the hotmail.outlook/live.com mail server as an outgoing mail server. Please check this document.
   • You can also use the yahoo mail server as an outgoing mail server. Please check this document.
   • In fact, you can use any third party mail server, just make sure that you are using the correct settings.