How can I resolve SPF record lookup limits with Netfirms webmail?

Email marketer from AuthSMTP.com recommends using a third-party email service that provides a simple, single 'include' statement for SPF. This consolidates multiple lookups into one, freeing up space for other services.

Marketer from Email Geeks suggests separating sending domains by concern (e.g., marketing, transactional) using subdomains as a best practice. He suggests obscuring large sender lists in public DNS and using a single place to manage SPF records to smooth transitions.

Email marketer from Reddit explains that many hosting providers, including those owned by large holding companies, often have bloated SPF records that use up most or all of the 10 DNS lookup limit. They suggest moving email services to a dedicated provider like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 to gain more control over the SPF record.

Email marketer from EmailQuestions.com explains that SPF flattening is a technique where all the 'include' statements in your SPF record are resolved into individual IP addresses. This reduces the number of DNS lookups but creates a very long SPF record. They advise using it cautiously and monitoring the SPF record regularly.

Email marketer from Stackoverflow shared how to solve the SPF lookup limit when using multiple services such as Zendesk, Mandrill, and Google Apps. Their approach involves creating subdomains for each service and assigning specific SPF records to each subdomain, thus avoiding exceeding the lookup limit on the primary domain. For example, using zendesk.example.com, mandrill.example.com, and google.example.com.

Email marketer from SuperUser notes if you are using a service like Google Apps, ensure that you are using the correct 'include' statement. Sometimes outdated or incorrect 'include' statements are used, adding unnecessary lookups. Specifically for Google, use 'include:_spf.google.com'.

Marketer from Email Geeks recommends using hosted SPF services to manage SPF records and avoid lookup limits.

Email marketer from EasyDMARC.com notes that exceeding the SPF lookup limit is a common problem. They recommend using a dedicated SPF record flattening service to manage and optimize the SPF record automatically, ensuring it stays within the limit.

Email marketer from MXToolbox.com suggests reviewing the current SPF record and removing any unnecessary or redundant 'include' statements. They highlight that some services might be duplicated, or no longer in use, unnecessarily adding to the lookup count.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests using subdomains for other services to work around SPF record limits and recommends complaining to Netfirms about their excessive SPF record.

Expert from Spam Resource explains that SPF 'include' and 'redirect' mechanisms count against the 10 DNS lookup limit. He states the limit is 'absurdly low' and encourages people to switch away from services that use too many lookups.

Expert from Word to the Wise notes that exceeding the SPF lookup limit results in a 'permerror', effectively negating SPF authentication and harming deliverability. She highlights the importance of monitoring SPF records to stay within the limit.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests that if the apex domain isn't used in the return path with other mail providers, the SPF record limit might not be an issue. However, he implies the mail service might not be great and recommends using a decent provider if email is important.

Documentation from dmarcian.com highlights that the 10 DNS lookup limit in SPF includes mechanisms like 'include,' 'a,' 'mx,' 'ptr,' 'exists,' 'redirect', but the 'ip4' and 'ip6' mechanisms do not count against the limit. Flattening your SPF record, using SPF Macros, or using a 3rd party SPF management tool are all highlighted as methods to resolve this issue.

Documentation from support.google.com advises on preventing email from going to spam, including using SPF. It mentions the 10 DNS lookup limit and how it can cause issues if exceeded. It suggests keeping the number of lookups below 10 to ensure proper authentication.

Documentation from Valimail.com explains that SPF has a lookup limit of 10 DNS lookups. Exceeding this limit will cause SPF to return a 'PermError,' failing the SPF check and potentially harming email deliverability. They recommend flattening SPF records to avoid exceeding the limit.

Documentation from RFC 7208 (the official SPF specification) states that SPF implementations MUST limit the number of DNS lookups performed during SPF evaluation to no more than 10. This is a hard limit defined in the protocol itself. Any evaluation exceeding this limit MUST return a 'PermError'.