Email Authentication

[Cassie]

In cpanel there is a section called Email Authentication. It seems to be some way of cutting down on spam by stopping other people from saying emails are from you when they are not.

I get hundreds of email bounce backs for emails I didn't send, so this would be good. But I have been stung so many times by cpanel changes buggering up my emails I really am reluctant to test it.

Has anyone else used it? How easy is it to set up? Does it stop legitimate emails?

I check & send emails from various different computers and through various ISP's (Orange only allows emails sent through their servers) - would this be a problem?

Any help or tutorials would be great.

[Administrator]

seems like you have enabled catchall option for your emails. You will get such bouncebacks as spammers use random email address on your domain as "sender" and "reply-to" email and all those bouncebacks are caught by your catchall account.

You will need to disable catchall to get rid of such spams.

[Cassie]

Well thank you for that Admin but it didn't exact answer the question did it?..

I know I have a catchall address - that is because I was stupid enough to use lots of different variations of my email address when I first set up my website. Sales@ tips@ contact@ etc... and now I can't remember them all. And I also tend to use a variation of my email address when on various websites. ie - If I register on British Gas I used the email address gas@... Again I can't remember all the ones I used and don't want to miss any emails.

That is why I have catchall. It is an account I check via Mailwasher which shows up any spam etc and I can delete them without opening them.

But I want to know if I can use the Email Authentication which is in cpanel.

[jon123]

I can't see that option in my cpanel Cassie, and am sure i have the latest version. Unless I can't see for looking!

[Cassie]

I have cpanel 11

Under Mail - the last icon

Don't remember seeing it before but then I haven't had time to 'play' lately so it could have been there a while.

[optrex]

OK lets ee if I can explain this in english. Basically these settings will allow the user of the domain to create dns entries on the server for that domain.

These DNS entries specifically are an SPF record and a domain key. Both are used to verify that the dedicated server (host) sendig the email is allowed to do so.

Those on VPS accounts would normally do this in WHM, this just allows users with only CPANEL access to create the records.

Usually it is required that these are active to allow you to succesfully send email to accounts such as AOL, hotmail and yahoo, but even if you dont it is considered good practice to enable both options.

[Cassie]

Sorry optrex but I am now more confused than I was before.

dns entries SPF record domain key WHM

If it is better to have them enabled then why isn't this done as standard.

If I do enable them then do I have to anything in the Advanced Settings under SPF ?

Will it affect anything else?

I have changed things before in cpanel and then not been able to get any emails - bit scared to change things now when I don't understand it.

[optrex]

If you are not getting any issues with email delivery then dont touch it.

[Cassie]

Thats why I was interested.

I get hundreds of bounce-back for emails supposedly sent from me or a variation of my domain that i never use. I tried setting up a filter for some of the most common but that just stopped some of my legitimate emails getting through as it started with the same letters - my fault for not being specific enough with my filter. But then when they stop another one pops up. If I could stop all that do not come from me that would be better.

[jon123]

Hi Cassie, as far as i am aware (knowing the address of only 3 of your sites), spf records are already setup with the exception of cra***its.

If i were you I would contact live support and ask then to double check, and where they don't exist, create them.

Having spf entries doesn't effect any filters or redirects you have set up.

[Cassie]

Thanks jon123 I will do that. The site you mentioned is the one that recently had major problems with emails from my shopping cart being blocked - that may be why that one is different.

[Cassie]

Right - now I am on a Windows server I don't have cpanel.

Is there anything I can set up in plesk to stop people using my email addresses as their from address in spam?

[Administrator]

Originally Posted by Cassie

Right - now I am on a Windows server I don't have cpanel.

Is there anything I can set up in plesk to stop people using my email addresses as their from address in spam?

You will need to disable catchall as thats the only source for spammers to use your email address in sender field.

[Cassie]

So the spf records thing mentioned above can only be done on cpanel and not on plesk?? That seems a little odd.

IF that is the case then can someone please answer my emails about the email filters in plesk having a code error whenever I go into it. I sent the emails on 16th June, 19th June and 21st June - no answer yet - #DHL-48780-262

[Administrator]

Originally Posted by Cassie

So the spf records thing mentioned above can only be done on cpanel and not on plesk?? That seems a little odd.

IF that is the case then can someone please answer my emails about the email filters in plesk having a code error whenever I go into it. I sent the emails on 16th June, 19th June and 21st June - no answer yet - #DHL-48780-262

This ticket was opened on "Date: Sat Jun 14 2008 06:22PM" and it was replied by Stephen at "Date: Sat Jun 14 2008 06:27PM"

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