How to manage e-mail deliverability settings in cPanel

This article describes how to manage e-mail deliverability settings in cPanel to help reduce unwanted e-mail (spam). These settings include:

• DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM).
• Sender Policy Framework (SPF).
• Reverse DNS (PTR records).

You should not typically need to modify these settings for your account.Table of Contents

• DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
• Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
• Reverse DNS (PTR records)
• More Information

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)

DKIM can be used to confirm that an incoming email message is truly from the specified sender and has not been tampered with in transit. A private key is used by the sender to digitally sign a message when DKIM is enabled. In order to confirm the message’s signature and obtain the sender’s public key, the recipient uses DNS. The message is considered to be forged and spam if the signature appears to be invalid.

To manage DKIM settings, follow these steps:

1. Log in to cPanel.If you do not know how to log in to your cPanel account, please see this article.
2. Open the Email Deliverability tool:
   • If you are using the Jupiter theme, on the Tools page, in the Email section, click Email Deliverability:
   • If you are using the Paper Lantern theme, in the EMAIL section of the cPanel home page, click Email Deliverability:
     
3. Locate the domain you want to manage, and then click Manage.
4. Under DKIM, you can view the name/value pair for the DKIM DNS entry.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

SPF assists in stopping spammers from creating fake messages that claim to be from your domain. Consequently, SPF might also lessen the quantity of bounce messages—often referred to as backscatter spam—that you get. SPF makes use of DNS records to list the IP addresses and mail servers that are permitted to deliver emails from a domain.

To manage SPF settings, follow these steps:

1. Log in to cPanel.If you do not know how to log in to your cPanel account, please see this article.
2. Open the Email Deliverability tool:
   • If you are using the Jupiter theme, on the Tools page, in the Email section, click Email Deliverability:
   • If you are using the Paper Lantern theme, in the EMAIL section of the cPanel home page, click Email Deliverability:
     
3. Locate the domain you want to manage, and then click Manage.
4. Under SPF, you can view and modify the name/value pair for the SPF DNS entry.
   If you have a shared hosting or reseller hosting account, confirm that the raw SPF record includes one of the following configuration lines:
   • If you have a shared hosting account, the raw SPF record should contain +include:spf.
   • If you have a reseller hosting account, the raw SPF record should contain +include:spf.supercp.com.
   If one of these configuration lines is not in the raw SPF record, follow these steps:
   1. Click Customize.
   2. Under ADDITIONAL SETTINGS, under Include List (INCLUDE), click Add A New “+include” Item.
   3. In the text box, type one of the following lines:
      • If you have a shared hosting account, type spf.hostvento.com.
      • If you have a reseller hosting account, type spf.supercp.com.
   4. Click Install A Customized SPF Record.
   5. You can use additional options on this page to further customize the SPF record if necessary.

Reverse DNS (PTR records)

A PTR record is a DNS entry that enables resolving IP addresses to domain names. This is called “reverse DNS” because a typical DNS lookup involves going the other way—returning the associated IP address for a given hostname. Verifying the domain name for a given IP address is another technique that is used to help reduce spam.

To manage reverse DNS settings, follow these steps:

1. Log in to cPanel.If you do not know how to log in to your cPanel account, please see this article.
2. Open the Email Deliverability tool:
   • If you are using the Jupiter theme, on the Tools page, in the Email section, click Email Deliverability:
   • If you are using the Paper Lantern theme, in the EMAIL section of the cPanel home page, click Email Deliverability:
     
3. Locate the domain you want to manage, and then click Manage.
4. Under REVERSE DNS (PTR), you can view the name/value pair for the PTR record.

More Information

• For more information about DKIM, please visit http://www.dkim.org.
• For more information about SPF, please visit http://www.openspf.org.
• For more information about reverse DNS, please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_DNS_lookup.