DKIM: Setting up HPW

DKIM: Setting up HPW

Emails sent from your HPW server(s) are considered reliable when it is equipped with DKIM. We explain the how and why in this blog:
  1. How to enable DKIM on your HPW server via our Portal
  2. How to add the DKIM DNS records to the DNS zone via our Portal
  3. How to set up the DMARC policy

What is DKIM?

DKIM stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail Standard (DKIM) where every outgoing email is signed with a unique signature. This is an invisible signature that is added to the mail headers. Receiving mail servers check and verify where the email comes from.

To ensure that emails sent from your HPW server(s) are considered reliable by a receiving mail server, you can use DKIM. With DKIM, every outgoing email is signed with a unique signature. The signature is of course not visible, it will be added to the mail headers. A receiving mail server can check this and then knows whether this email really comes from you or whether someone else is sending an email on your behalf (for example phishing emails). In this manual we explain how you can set up DKIM yourself via our Portal .

How do you set up DKIM?

Setting up DKIM requires some basic knowledge. If DKIM is set up incorrectly, the opposite can also happen, namely that e-mail is rejected because it cannot be validated. However, we try to keep it as simple as possible. First, we will discuss the requirements.

Supplies

Before you set up DKIM, we assume that you have the following matters in order and at hand:
  1. Data to log in to the LinQhost Portal . If you do not use LinQhost name servers, you must log in to the party that manages them for you.
  2. You know for which domain you want to use DKIM. This is the domain name of your sender address part of your email address. In our example we use “linqhost.nl” as the domain name.
  3. The SPF record for the domain name you are going to set up DKIM for. This is a hard requirement and DKIM will not work correctly if the SPF configuration is not correct.
  4. A unique description of your DKIM configuration. This description is also called the “selector”, and in this example we use “dkimTutorial”. If you set up DKIM in multiple places (for example on the mail server at the office and on the server at LinQhost because the hosted application also sends mails on behalf of the same domain name), you can use this selector to identify the application.
Once you have these requirements, we can set up and manage DKIM.

Setting up and managing DKIM via the LinQhost Portal

Add DKIM

To get started, log in to the LinQhost Portal . Go to “Servers” under “Services”, and click on the “Server details” action (the eye icon) for the server in question.



On this page, select the “DKIM” tab and click on “Add DKIM” within this overview.



The first step asks you to enter the selector and your domain name. If we use our example, you would use “dkimTutorial” for “Name”, and “linqhost.nl“ for “Domain”.



After clicking “Next” in the first step, a number of actions will take place on the server, and in the second step you will be presented with an overview of the required information. You add this information to the DNS.



Activate DKIM

You can activate DKIM by clicking on “Activate DKIM” (the icon of a green triangle) in the “Action” column. From that moment on, all emails ending with @linqhost.nl will be signed. The LinQhost Portal will then perform a check to see if the DNS is set up correctly, to keep DKIM activated.



Temporarily disable DKIM

It may happen that you temporarily do not want to use DKIM. In the Portal you can click on “Stop” (the icon of a blue square) in the “Action” column. All data will remain intact, but no more signing will take place.



Remove DKIM

You can permanently delete your DKIM key by clicking “Delete” (the red cross icon) in the “Action” column. Please note, this cannot be undone. The DNS record will not be deleted automatically, you will have to delete it separately in your DNS management panel.



Setting up DKIM if you have hosted your DNS elsewhere

It may happen that you want to create a DKIM record, while you have the DNS management of the domain elsewhere. In this case, you can create a DKIM record by following the manual of your DNS provider. You can use the steps for adding the DKIM record within the LinQhost Portal as a basis for this.

Add DKIM record

Go to the LinQhost Portal and log in with your credentials. Then go to “DNS” under “Services”. For the domain in question, under “Action”, choose “View DNS records” (the icon of an eye). In this example, we choose “linqhost.nl”.



In this overview, click on “Create DNS record” and enter the necessary data in the “Create DNS record” menu, as presented in step 2 when adding DKIM to the server.

For name, we fill in “dkimTutorial._domainkey” in this example, which results in a DNS record on “dkimTutorial._domainkey.linqhost.nl”, as previously indicated. For type, choose “TXT”. You can leave the TTL value at 3 hours by default, or adjust it as desired. For “Content”, fill in the remaining value as presented in step 2 when adding DKIM to the server. Once everything has been filled in, choose “Create DNS record”.



The LinQhost Portal itself ensures that quotation marks are added to the TXT record. These are ultimately necessary for proper functioning when using the LinQhost name servers.

Set up DMARC policy

With a DMARC policy you indicate what a receiving party should do when it receives an email that does not pass the SPF/DKIM check. For this you need to create a "_dmarc" TXT record with the following content "v=DMARC1; p=none;". For more extensive possibilities you can use this (English) online generator.

Testing

DKIM should now be fully active, to be sure you can test this via https://www.mail-tester.com/.



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