If your emails are landing in your recipients' spam folders, or being rejected outright by services like Gmail or Outlook, a missing or misconfigured SPF record is one of the most common causes. This guide explains what SPF is and walks you through setting it up correctly for your domain using the hosting control panel included with your CRServers account.
What is SPF?
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a DNS record that lists which mail servers are allowed to send email on behalf of your domain. When another mail provider (like Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo) receives a message claiming to be from [email protected], it checks your domain's SPF record to confirm the message actually came from a server you authorized. If it didn't, the message may be flagged as spam or rejected entirely.
In short: SPF helps prevent other people from sending forged email pretending to be from your domain, and it helps your own legitimate email get delivered instead of landing in spam.
ns1.crservers.net, ns2.crservers.net, ns3.crservers.net). If your domain uses a different DNS provider, you'll need to add the SPF record there instead — contact our support team if you're not sure where your domain's DNS is managed.
How to Set Up SPF
- Log in to your hosting control panel at https://iwx41.crservers.com:2443/siteworx/, or go to your Client Area, open your hosting service, and click Hosting Control Panel to log in automatically without a password.
- From the main menu, go to Administration > Mail Options > SPF. This opens the Domain SPF Records page.
- Click the pencil icon next to your domain. This opens the SPF record editor, which offers two modes: the Wizard Interface (recommended for most users) and the Advanced Interface (for entering a custom SPF string directly).
Recommended setup for CRServers hosting
If your email is hosted with us (i.e. your mailboxes were created here and you use mail.yourdomain.com), use the Wizard Interface with these settings:
- SPF Version: SPFv1
- Use A Records?: No
- Use MX Records?: No
- Use PTR Records?: No (not recommended by the SPF standard)
- Other Servers: Yes
- Include:
_spf.crservers.com - Fallback (all): Soft Fail (
~all)
This authorizes our full outbound mail infrastructure to send on behalf of your domain, and will stay correct automatically if we ever need to change or add sending servers on our end.
If you use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for email
If your mailboxes are not hosted with us and you instead use an external provider, you need to authorize that provider's servers instead (or in addition). Use the Advanced Interface and enter the record your provider specifies, for example:
- Google Workspace:
v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all - Microsoft 365:
v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all
If you send mail from both our servers and an external provider, combine the includes into a single record, for example:
v=spf1 include:_spf.crservers.com include:_spf.google.com ~all
include rather than creating a second one — multiple SPF records will cause validation failures.
- Click Update All Domains to save your changes.
How to Verify It's Working
DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes up to 24 hours to fully propagate. Once some time has passed, you can confirm your SPF record is live in either of these ways:
- In your control panel, go to Hosting Features > Domains > DNS Records, view your domain's records, and confirm the SPF/TXT entry matches what you set.
- Send a test email to a Gmail address, open the message, click the three-dot menu, and select Show original. Look for
SPF: PASSin the results.
Common Issues
- "Too many DNS lookups" errors: SPF records that use several
includestatements can exceed the 10-lookup limit defined by the SPF standard. Keep your includes to the minimum needed. - Mail still marked as spam after adding SPF: SPF alone is not enough for the best deliverability — you should also configure DKIM and DMARC (see our related articles) as these work together.
- Changed email providers but deliverability didn't improve: double check you removed the old provider's
includeif it's no longer in use, and that you don't have a duplicate SPF record.
Need Help?
If you're not sure which setup applies to you, or run into any issues, open a support ticket and our team will be happy to review your DNS setup with you.