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soapergem
Asked: 2009-11-06 13:34:41 +0800 CST

What's the difference between mx: and include: in SPF records?

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I'm very new to all things DNS, yet I am trying to set up some SPF records. So far the SPF Setup Wizard has been immensely helpful, and I think I have things pretty much set; however I'd really like to know what the difference between mx:domain.com and include:domain.com is. Is it somewhat redundant to have both? Or do they both do mutually exclusive things? Thanks in advance.

domain-name-system

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    • "include:" includes the settings from another SPF-record (must point to a different name) - it does not actually specify any hosts ifself.

    • "mx:" includes the hosts designated by MX-records for a domain name (same a using "a:" for each of the host names pointed to by the MX-records).

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  2. The 'include' directive allows you to import SPF settings from another zone. Imagine if you are a company that has 5-7 zone. Rather than writing the SPF records each time, you can just write them on one and import to the others.

    Hope that helps!

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