Setting up DKIM and SPF via Cloudflare (So That I Stop Embarrassing Myself)

[Potatoe]

Hey I need some help...

I use Zoho to host my site's email, and Cloudflare manages the DNS.

I got a little warning from Zoho that popped up telling me my DKIM and SPF wasn't setup correctly, so I went through and added the values they gave me to my DNS through Cloudflare, I clicked "Verify" in Zoho's dashboard, and it said it was all good. I also have the MX records for Zoho in Cloudflare and those seem to be a-ok.

I woke up today, went to Zoho, and got the same warning, saying that DKIM and SPF wasn't configured correctly.

I checked the settings in Cloudflare and the TXT value had actually changed from "v=spf1 include:zoho.com ~all" to "v=spf1 a mx ip4:##.###.##.### ~all" and said I was no longer verified. The first value is the one that zoho told me to use, that worked in successfully verifying my site, until it changed itself to the second value.

Any idea what would cause this to change on its own overnight?

This is one of those "I've made a huge mistake" moments. I had originally configured this months ago, but apparently it didn't 'stick' then either. I was wondering why so many companies would reach out to me to advertise and then never get back to me after I responded favorably, it sounds like almost none of my emails were hitting their inboxes without this SPF and DKIM stuff. Admittedly, the first time around when I configured these two things months ago, I wasn't even sure what they were. I actually read what SPF does this time, and it all started to make sense...

I missed out on building a ton of relationships and potential revenue, and who knows what else. After I get this setup and working for sure for sure, I'm going to email back every single person just in case. Super embarrassing for the brand. I might even just email them back from my brand@gmail and start using that instead, but that's a whole other can of worms...

Anyways, if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! Hopefully this can help somebody else who is wondering why nobody ever responds to their emails lol. Ideally I'd like to stay with Cloudflare because I have Ezoic setup through them, but even more ideally I'd like to have my emails landing in inboxes...

 

[Rageix]

It does sound kind of weird. You're domain DNS is hosted with Cloudflare right? Did you email Cloudflare and ask them what is up? Probably the fastest way to figure out why they are changing your DNS entry.

 

[Potatoe]

@Rageix Yep! I fired off an email to Cloudflare first, and then my host. My host said the records on the hosting side were yet again different than the ones in Cloudflare, so I had the host add the correct ones on their end, they said it probabally wouldn't do anything since my DNS is hosted with Cloudflare, but wouldn't hurt either. Waiting to hear back from Cloudflare.

The IP that Cloudflare is changing it to doesn't seem to be related to my site, my host didn't recognize it, etc.

 

[CCarter]

Here is a tool to help people generate proper dmarc DNS records: Generate _dmarc record

 

[Stones]

Can't help with the issue of changing values in the TXT record. But wanted to echo Carter.

If you are doing SPF and DKIM, do DMARC too.

 

[maximus]

Even @ $0/mo hosting emails with zoho costs too much.
I constantly had deliverability issues and at least 35% of all outgoing mail will end up in the spam folder due to their syphilitic shared ip blocks.

if the leads are important, you would be better off running your own web/email server stack on a clean ip or just pay for a business email host like outlook