By default, the outbound email address for messages sent from XTruLink is email@venuetickets.net. The article below details how to change this email address to one with your company's domain.
Authentication and Delivery
Authentication and delivery are at the heart of sending email with XTruLink: the authentication process is necessary to start sending messages, and monitoring delivery ensures that those messages will continue to reach recipients’ mailboxes in a timely fashion.
Setting up authentication requires adding a sending domain to XTruLink, configuring your DNS for DKIM and SPF authentication, and then verifying that everything’s working as expected. This documentation covers everything you need to know for each of these steps.
What is authentication?
Authentication is a way to prove an email isn’t forged. XTruLink automatically authenticates all emails sent through our servers, but by adding DNS records to your domain, we’re able to send on your behalf and digitally “sign” your emails.
Many ISPs use authentication to track sending reputation, and since authentication is handled by your domain, you maintain some control over the emails that affect deliverability for that domain. A positive reputation builds trust and improves deliverability, reducing the chance that your emails are caught by spam filters and improving how quickly the receiving servers will accept mail from your domain.
You’ll need to add SPF and DKIM records and verify ownership of your sending domains before you can send email through your account. XTruLink will not send any email from unverified domains or domains without valid SPF and DKIM records.
In this section, we’ll walk through the steps required to set up and authenticate your sending domain with XTruLink.
Add a Sending Domain
To get started with authentication, you’ll need to add the email address that you want to send messages from.
In the XTruLink Cloud Dashboard:
- Navigate to System > XTruLink Settings and choose Email Settings.
- Click Change Email Address, add your new outbound email address in the box, and click Verify Email Address.
Configure your DNS
Once you’ve added your sending domain, you’ll need to create DNS records that enable DKIM and SPF email authentication as well as verification for that domain.
To add the verification, SPF and DKIM records for your sending domains, you'll need to add TXT records through your hosting provider, domain registrar, or DNS provider. We recommend referring to your provider’s documentation or support for specific information on adding TXT records.
Verify Domain Ownership
Domain verification is required to configure a sending domain. All domains that are actively used for sending should have three green verified boxes on the Email Settings verification page:
Verified Domains, SPF, and DKIM
To verify a domain, you will see a unique key, something like:
mandrill_verify.Yfe0JuqvZBiYIUXmTwQNiA
Add this to your domain’s TXT records, and then click Test DNS Settings to check if the record is available. Just like with SPF and DKIM, your domain’s TTL may require several minutes’ wait for the record to appear.
DKIM
Create two CNAME records: one with the name mte1._domainkey.yourdomain.com with the value dkim1.mandrillapp.com, and another with the name mte2._domainkey.yourdomain.com and the value dkim2.mandrillapp.com.
DMARC
Create and save a TXT record in your DNS with a name of _dmarc.yourdomain.com and a value of v=DMARC1; p=none.
Replace yourdomain.com with the domain you're setting up. Some domain hosts automatically add yourdomain.com after the initial value—contact your domain provider for any specifics.
SPF
To enable SPF, add another TXT record, this time for the bare domain you added as your sending domain. Click View SPF settings; the modal will again prompt you to create a new TXT record with a domain name and value.
If you’re only sending mail for that domain through XTruLink, the value should be, at minimum:
v=spf1 include:spf.mandrillapp.com ?all
If you already have a TXT record with SPF information, you’ll need to add XTruLink’s servers to that record by adding include:spf.mandrillapp.com in the record (before the last operator, which is usually ?all, ~all, or -all).
Test DNS Settings
Once you’ve set up the TXT records for both DKIM and SPF, you can verify that you configured everything correctly by clicking the Test DNS Settings button. Both your DKIM and SPF settings should now indicate that they’re valid.
Confirm Your Outbound Email Address
Once all three DNS records are verified, you can click the Save Email Address button in the XTruLink Dashboard (from System > XTruLink Settings) to update your outbound email.