Effects of DMARC record

  • Resolved Bob

    (@bobk88)


    2 years, 11 months ago

    I followed your tutorials in setting up WP Mail SMTP with SendInBlue. As of this writing, SendInBlue has successfully authenticated the domain.

    When I send a test email from WP Mail SMTP, it still presents the message that DMARC has not been set up (and a search for “dmarc” in the header code turns up nothing). MX Toolbox also shows no DMARC record.

    I set it up about 4.5 hours ago, and my hosting service’s TTL is 1 hour (not changeable by the user).

    I suspect I simply need to wait longer for it to propagate.

    Meanwhile, I have two beginner’s questions:

    Will the DMARC record have any effect on messages that are sent outside of SendInBlue?

    For example, suppose a customer makes a purchase from my site and receives a confirmation email sent by the WP Mail SMTP plugin via SendInBlue from [email protected].

    The customer replies to that message, and I retrieve it NOT via the SendInBlue site but through the email client on my computer.

    When I reply to it, will the DMARC record on the server cause any problems since this message won’t be going through SendInBlue (for example, causing the recipient’s server to think it’s spoofed)?

    Also, will the DMARC record have any effects on other email accounts on the same server that are not associated with my web site or SendInBlue?

    I could simply wait till the DMARC record propagates and see what happens, but if this is going to cause problems I’d rather remove it right away.

    Thanks!

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Plugin Support David

    (@dpinson)

    Hi @bobk88,

    DMARC is an optional step, but it can help when emails fail. We have a guide on our site that goes over what a DMARC record is for, as well as how to make one. You can check it out here:

    https://wpmailsmtp.com/how-to-create-dmarc-record/

    I highly recommend reading through the post because it provides a lot of useful information on DMARC.

    Our plugin bridges a connection between your WordPress site and your mailer service, which in this case is Sendinblue. Basically, our plugin hands off the message to Sendinblue, which in turn emails the message to where it needs to go (presumably your email address). So you would view the emails in your email, not on the Sendinblue service.

    Regarding how DMARC and Sendinblue work together, the DMARC record will be checked by any service, whether Sendinblue is used to send the message or not.

    Also, in case it helps, you can check your DMARC record here: https://www.dmarcanalyzer.com/dkim/dkim-checker/

    Propagation can take up to 24 hours in extreme cases, so you may be clear by this point. If not, you may want to reach out to your registrar or web host to make sure the record was saved properly.

    I hope that helps. Have a great day!

    Thread Starter Bob

    (@bobk88)

    Thanks for the reply, @dpinson !

    It turns out I had incorrectly entered the domain while setting up the DMARC record on my hosting server. It actually had propagated, but to the wrong domain. With the correction, it propagated correctly, so setup is now complete and WP Mail SMTP reports success with test messages.

    What wasn’t clear in the DMARC documentation is – if I understand correctly – that with DMARC, the sending email server (in this case, SendInBlue) adds code to the message header which the receiving server uses to authenticate the message.

    If I send messages from the same email account from my hosting server instead of via SendInBlue, DMARC code isn’t added, so the receiving server won’t look for it, and it won’t cause a problem.

    It would help beginners like me to have this extra bit of explanation in the tutorial. Otherwise, I found the documentation very helpful. Nicely done!

    • This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by Bob.
Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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