Stream News & Views

04 May 2023
Nonprofit Courses chooses PD able to track its Professional Development
Matt Hugg, President and Founder of Nonprofit Courses tells us how he tried unsuccessfully to find a suitable professional development system for his...
02 May 2023
Insurance Brokers Association of New Zealand (IBANZ) Website
When IBANZ made the shift to rebrand their organisation they also engaged us to refresh their existing membership website. Utilizing streamSWEET,...
01 May 2023
Our Tech 10 - May 2023
30 Mar 2023
Xmas better late than never
At Stream we try to keep a good work-life balance but things got the better of us at the end of last year and continued into 2023.
16 Mar 2023
Is the hype around AI and ChatGPT really something worth looking into? We decided to find out!
We asked chatGPT to produce an AI generated presentation about one of our favourite topics: Why is Professional Development key to your business...
05 Dec 2022
Trojan E-commerce Website Upgrade
5 years ago Stream Interactive launched the Trojan website, moving the business into full online, e-commerce capability. ERP integration was also...
08 Sep 2022
Professional Development Tracker Software
In our opinion, this is one of the best Professional Development trackers in the world today.
04 Jul 2022
Should I make the switch to Google Analytics 4?
Oh heck Google will no longer be supporting Universal Analytics from 1 July 2023, instead you will now need to migrate over to their latest and...
20 Jun 2022
What are image 'alt' tags and how do they affect SEO?
Image Alt Text and SEO
30 Mar 2022
Should I create a custom 404 page for my website?
What is a 404 page anyway? A 404 page shows when someone gets lost on your website by using the wrong URL. This can happen for a variety of...
22 Nov 2021
Could Google be manipulating your webpage title tags?
19 Nov 2021
Our Tech 10
18 Jun 2021
Can my newsletter look great on all devices & what about those pesky spam algorithms?
Email is still one of the most dependable direct marketing channels available. You've done all the hard work building up a reliable email database...
03 May 2021
Civil trades accreditation programme website
Civil Trades is the go-to destination for aspiring and qualified civil trades people who want to be recognised for their skills in the industry
22 Mar 2021
Subdomain or Subdirectory, which is better for SEO?
Sometimes it makes sense to manage two different websites from the same domain, but how does this affect SEO?
17 Dec 2020
Integrating Xero with your website will benefit your organisation
One of steamSWEET's biggest advantages over other systems is it's ability to integrate with XERO. We've compiled a very simple checklist to help you...
17 Dec 2020
AutoPacific Group Website
AutoPacific Group is an industry leading designer, manufacturer and distributor of high-quality, custom-engineered towing, trailering, cargo...
11 Dec 2020
COVID 19 has dramatically affected our business... but in a good way!
2020 has been an extraordinary year for Stream Interactive, with all the lockdowns and travel limitations, we've had to adapt to the new world order....
24 Jul 2020
Continuing Professional Development, why is it so important to your organisation?
15 Jul 2020
Order your towbars online using the new Hayman Reese NZ website
Order your towbars online

What is an SPF record, and why should we care?

14 Nov 2018

SPF stands for Sender Policy Framework, and is a method designed to protect valid email communication. It provides a mechanism that helps identify valid email sources, thereby making communication such as SPAM, spoofing and phishing,  much more detectable.

An SPF record sits against your domain settings on the DNS (domain name server) and allows the Domain name owner to specify which computers are authorised to send mail using the domain name in the from address. By nature this information is publicly available, and through good design the content of this record will align with the mail servers that an organisation uses for sending outbound emails.   

e.g. If your Domain name is widget.com then your email addresses will be something like fred@widget.com and mary@widget.com  By using the SPF record you can make it known that only server 'x' may send emails ending with @widget.com

The receiving email server can then refer to that publicly available DNS information and use it to assess whether the inbound email has come from a valid source. Administrators of the receiving mail server will configure how emails that fail this test are handled, ranging from fully blocking them to dumping them into a SPAM directory.

The SPF tool set has existed for many years, but it is only in recent times that the world has mass adopted use of it.  In doing so this space has suddenly moved from a 'nice to have' to effectively becoming a requirement. In plain language this means that if you don't have an SPF record set up, you need to get one set up now.

If you know how to access your DNS records via your domain name provider then in theory you can update these records yourself. However without full technical understanding this is dangerous space as wrongly set records can cause all your email communication to fail and/or have highly unexpected outcomes.

If your emails are not reaching their intended destination or you're concerned about SPF records talk to your domain name manager, or if Stream manage your domain name we are happy to help. Get in touch with us.

We will be contacting all of our existing clients to make recommendations about SPF settings, inclusive of a review of emails that are sent via the streamSWEET platform.


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