Email authentication guides
Practical, no-nonsense guides to SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Fix what is broken and keep your mail out of spam.
DMARC RUA vs RUF: Aggregate and Forensic Reports
A practical comparison of DMARC aggregate (rua) and failure/forensic (ruf) reports: what each contains, how often they arrive, why Google and Yahoo skip RUF for privacy reasons, and exactly which tags to add.
What Is Microsoft SNDS and How to Read It
Microsoft SNDS is a free tool that shows how Outlook.com rates your sending IPs. Learn to read its data columns, enroll in SNDS and JMRP, and fix Outlook and Hotmail delivery.
Google Postmaster Tools: How to Set It Up and Read Every Dashboard
Google Postmaster Tools shows how Gmail actually treats your mail: domain reputation, spam rate, authentication pass rates, delivery errors and the feedback loop. This guide walks through TXT-record verification, explains why the dashboards stay empty until SPF, DKIM and DMARC line up, and decodes every graph in plain English so you know exactly what to fix.
How to Set Up TLS-RPT: SMTP TLS Reporting DNS Record Step by Step
TLS-RPT tells sending mail servers where to send daily reports when TLS negotiation to your domain fails. Add one TXT record at _smtp._tls.yourdomain.com with v=TLSRPTv1 and a rua endpoint, point it at a dedicated reporting mailbox or HTTPS collector, and you get visibility into encryption failures. This guide gives you the exact copy-paste record, the operational details most guides skip, and how TLS-RPT works alongside MTA-STS and DANE.
How to Read a DMARC Aggregate (RUA) Report: The XML Decoded Field by Field
A DMARC aggregate report is a daily XML file listing every IP that sent mail as your domain and whether each passed DMARC. This guide walks a real annotated sample field by field: report_metadata, policy_published, and record rows, including the difference between raw and aligned results. Then it gives three triage patterns so you can tell legitimate-but-failing senders from spoofing and know the exact action for each, no paid dashboard required.