Configuring domain authentication step by step
With authentication, you provide mail servers with verifiable proof that Laposta is authorised to send emails on your behalf. This proof consists of a few lines in the DNS of your domain. This gives the receiving party extra certainty about the sender and the content of your email, and therefore an extra reason to trust it. For good delivery of your newsletters (‘deliverability’), this is almost always necessary: without authentication, many newsletters are rejected.
If something is missing, Laposta will automatically notify you, for example under Settings → Senders and while creating a campaign.
The difference between authentication, sender address and hostname
When sending, three settings are important that are technically related to each other, but which you configure separately:
- Your sender address is the email address that your recipient sees. You add and confirm this in your account. Read more at Sender address explained.
- You configure authentication using DNS records at the party where your domain name is registered.
- Your hostname is the name used for the links and images in your newsletter. Read more at Changing your account hostname.
Authenticating your domain
Open the instructions for your domain
Go to Settings → Authentication in the bottom left of your screen. There you will see the domain names you use as a sender address, along with the status for each domain. Next to the domain you want to authenticate, click ‘Show instructions’.
Copy the records you need to add
Copy the lines you need to add to your domain’s DNS: two CNAME records (‘Return path’ and ‘DKIM’), and if indicated for your domain, also a ‘DMARC’ record of the TXT type. For each block, the name and target are ready for you, with a copy button next to them.
At the bottom of the page, everything is also provided as a single block of text. Click ‘Copy to clipboard’ to copy everything at once. For the example domain laposta.info, it looks like this:
Your own account will show your own domain name and values. Copy them exactly as they are shown there.
Add the records at your domain provider
Add the records to the DNS settings at your domain provider (the organisation where your domain name is registered), so not in Laposta. Where to find that screen and what the fields are called varies by provider.
- If you do it yourself, follow the instructions per provider. If your provider is not listed there, you will also find a general explanation in that article.
- If you have someone else do it, send the copied block from step 2 to the administrator of your domain: usually your web developer or hosting provider, or the ICT department at larger organisations. Ask them to let you know once the lines have been added, so you can activate the authentication afterwards.
At some providers, the target must end with a full stop: mail.eprov.eu. instead of mail.eprov.eu.
Activate the authentication
Once the records are in the DNS of your domain, go back to Settings → Authentication and click ‘Show instructions’ again. Below the records, click ‘Activate’.
Your domain is now authenticated. You will see a confirmation that you can send campaigns from the sender address for which you have authenticated the domain.
Authentication is no longer active
Laposta checks daily whether your authentication is still working. Sometimes the DNS records are no longer in order, for example because you have moved your domain name to a new host, or because the ICT department has modified or cleaned up the DNS settings.
You will then receive an email warning you that the authentication is no longer active. Go through the steps above again and reactivate your domain. If you see a message in your account that your sender address is not yet fully in order, this often has the same cause and these steps will help as well.