PermError SPF Permanent Error: Too many DNS lookup

Question

I have SPF and TXT record configured. When i check the SPF record syntax. It says PermError SPF Permanent Error: Too many DNS lookup.

 v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:netcore.co.in ~all 

And my emails are landed in SPAM as well.

1) I am on shared hosting, I dont have dedicated IP and DKIM configured. Actually I dont send emails with spam triggering words. Since I am on shared hosting. Is there any possibility of other's on the shared hosting sending the emails which resulted in my emails to land in SPAM.

2) I am using the netcore.co.in to send the mass mails. and google.com to send the mails from gmail. And I have properly configured MX records as well. I have mentioned google MX records But not netcore.net MX records. I am using sendgrid's free smtp server to send the emails from my java web app. which i am not mentioned in spf record. Is SPF record causing the spam issues.

Warfield

Answer 1

You should have a look at this question I answered a few weeks ago:

Too many DNS lookups in an SPF record

You only get 10 DNS lookups for SPF (that's part of the protocol). There are automatically two lookups to get your TXT records and the actual SPF record. Without doing the actual math (I'll leave that to you as an exercise), you're hovering in the neighborhood of 13-14 lookups. You need to either consolidate your SPF records into one, or drop one of those services. (For instance, SendGrid allows you to do both transactional and mass mail under one set of IPs, so you could drop netcore or gmail entirely).

As for your spam issue, you should contact SendGrid support (http://support.sendgrid.com), that shouldn't be happening to you and they will be able to help you troubleshoot and resolve the issue.

Ahumada

Answer 2

Another option is to use an SPF Proxy service like spfproxy.org. It masks all the lookups behind a proxy that does it in the background. Takes just a couple minutes to setup. =

Gamic

Answer 3

This has nothing to do with shared hosting, dedicated IP, DKIM set up or not, or if your content looks spammy.

The only culprit here is that your SPF contains 10+ mechanisms and/or modifiers that do DNS lookups. The SPF spec imposes this limit to prevent DDoS attacks.

You can use an online SPF checker to check the DNS lookup count in your SPF record: Online SPF checker

When "SPF PermError: too many DNS lookups" is returned during an SPF check, DMARC treats that as fail since it's a permanent error, and all SPF permanent errors are interpreted as fail by DMARC. This can have a negative impact on your email deliverability and you should seek a solution to this problem.

I've written a post on this topic: SPF PermError: too many DNS lookups

Wisteria