missing SPF record

[jimlongo]

On my VPS I have one account transferred from another server that I'm having a slight problem with the DNS records. The SPF record is missing although it is checked in Account Information > List Accounts > Modify Account. The DNS Zone editor in WHM has all the same settings as every other similar zone, yet the records are different on this one account. information garbled for privacy protection

noise:~ jimlongo$ dig steamers.ca ANY +noall +answer
streamers.ca.		21148	IN	SOA	ns1.vpsgrille.ca. jimlongo.div.com. 2013010806 86400 7200 3600000 86400
streamers.ca.		21148	IN	NS	ns1.vpsgrille.ca.
streamers.ca.		21148	IN	NS	ns2.vpsgrille.ca.
streamers.ca.		13948	IN	A	76.74.137.122
streamers.ca.		13948	IN	TXT	"v=spf1 +a +mx +ip4:76.74.137.122 ?all"
streamers.ca.		13948	IN	MX	0 steamers.ca.

Also note the MX record which contrasts with every other record on this VPS where it would normally be in the form of

streamers.ca.		13948	IN	MX	10 mail.steamers.ca.

Any advice? Can I edit this somewhere via SSH?

Thanks,
jim

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello

You mentioned the SPF record is missing. Could you clarify where it's missing from? You may want to try disabling, and then enabling the SPF record via "cPanel >> Email Authentication".

Thank you.

 

[jimlongo]

I guess my question is why isn't the record shown as an SPF record instead of a TXT record?

And additionally why is the cpanel generated record have ?all
Not any kind of expert but my reading says

? Neutral The SPF record specifies explicitly that nothing can be said about validity accept

Most threads on this forum indicate it would be better to have -all

 

[cPanelMichael]

I found the following URL to help explain why TXT records are used:

HOWTO - Define an SPF Record

As for your second question, the consensus is to avoid hard fails on SPF records since it breaks email forwarding unless the forwarding server uses SRS.

The "~all" entry is generally preferred since it gets messages from non-standard senders bumped up in spam detection systems, but doesn't outright fail them. We do have an internal case open that aims to change the default SPF entry from "?all" to "~all". For reference, the internal case number is 51450.

You can find more information on the SPF record syntax at:

SPF Record Syntax

Thank you.

 

[jimlongo]

Thank you.

 

[andryan]

Hi Michael,

What is the progress on this default change?

I found the following URL to help explain why TXT records are used:

HOWTO - Define an SPF Record

As for your second question, the consensus is to avoid hard fails on SPF records since it breaks email forwarding unless the forwarding server uses SRS.

The "~all" entry is generally preferred since it gets messages from non-standard senders bumped up in spam detection systems, but doesn't outright fail them. We do have an internal case open that aims to change the default SPF entry from "?all" to "~all". For reference, the internal case number is 51450.

You can find more information on the SPF record syntax at:

SPF Record Syntax

Thank you.

 

[cPanelMichael]

There is no new information available on case 51450 at this time. I have made note of this thread on the internal case.

Thank you.