When you send emails using our Mass Notification System, the default email address is not using your district's email address. If you would like to use an email address with your domain name to send from using our system, you will need to set up some additional DNS records to provide to mail servers that our system has permission from you to send emails using your domain. Otherwise, your emails sent from our system with your email address is much more likely to appear in the recipient's spam folders.
The Solution
The objective is to make sure each our originating email server is authorized to send out emails on behalf of your “From” domain. For example, if you want your emails to show as being from “@SpielenSchools.edu,” then your “SpielenSchools.edu” domain setup needs to explicitly authorize the BrightArrow servers to send out those emails. That needs to be done by the person or company who manages your email domain (example: “@SpielenSchools.edu”), and specifically, they will need to update their DNS (Domain Name System) record to provide that authorization.
Technical Details
Here are the steps to update your DNS records to authorize our email servers to send out emails from your domain. These steps are intentionally broad because each DNS management interface is different – it would be impossible to give you a more specific step-by-step without knowing exactly what DNS management service that you use (and there are many of them).
The idea is to update your DNS records using a specially formatted TXT record. You can only have one TXT record designated for SPF, so if you already have one, you will need to combine our SPF record within your existing SPF record.
We have a consolidated SPF reference that you can use:
include:spf_target.brightarrow.com
For example, if you already have an SPF record for:
google.com
you could have the following as your entire SPF record if it contains Google and our email server:
Before (if, as per the example, you already use spf.google.com):
v=spf1 include:spf.google.com -all
After:
v=spf1 include:spf.google.com include:spf_target.brightarrow.com -all
Once you have this SPF record in place, we also have to make a minor change on our side to change the originating address reference.
What Happens Next
Once the above changes are made, we also need to make a final change on our side. Once you have verified your change is made, let us know (support.cms@4schools.net) and we’ll change it on our side and verify that the email header information is correct.
How to Get Help
Also, once you have identified the person or company who manages your DNS (domain) records and settings, they are welcome to reach out with any specific questions they may have.