Authorizing Website Toolbox to send email

You can authorize Website Toolbox to send email for your email address domain name by updating the SPF and DKIM DNS record for your domain name using the instructions below. If you have DMARC or SPF set up on your domain and you have not authorized Website Toolbox to send email on behalf of your domain name, your forum will send emails from noresponse@websitetoolbox.com instead.

If you are using a free email provider (like gmail.com) for your Outgoing Email address, it will not be possible to make the necessary changes because they do not give you access to their DNS records.

Note that if the sender and recipient of the email are both the same email address, we will always send the email as noresponse@websitetoolbox.com to avoid it being marked as spam by the email provider.

Updating your SPF record

You can check if your email address domain name has an SPF record by using this tool. If there is already an existing SPF record, ensure that mailers.websitetoolbox.com is given authorization to send email from that domain name by adding a:mailers.websitetoolbox.com to the SPF record. Here is an example SPF DNS record: "v=spf1 a mx a:mailers.websitetoolbox.com ~all". It may take up to 1 hour for Website Toolbox to detect your SPF changes.

If an SPF record doesn't already exist, you can add a new SPF DNS record by following these instructions:

1. Sign in to the administrator console provided by your domain provider.
2. Locate the page from which you can update the DNS records.

   Adding an SPF record for a subdomain? If your domain host doesn't support updating DNS records for subdomains, add the record to the parent domain.

3. Create a TXT record with the Name field blank, and with a value of "v=spf1 a mx a:mailers.websitetoolbox.com ~all"
4. Save your changes.

It may take up to 1 hour for Website Toolbox to detect your SPF changes.

Creating a DKIM record

1. Sign in to the administrator console provided by your domain provider.
2. Locate the page from which you can update the DNS records.

   Adding a DKIM record for a subdomain? If your domain host doesn't support updating DNS records for subdomains, add the record to the parent domain.

3. Create a CNAME record named websitetoolbox._domainkey with a value of websitetoolbox._domainkey.websitetoolbox.com

   We have specific CNAME setup instructions for some common domain hosts. However, note that you should use the CNAME name and value stated above, not the name and value stated in the support article. Alternatively, you can mention these instructions to your domain name provider to have them make the changes for you.

4. Save your changes.

5. Visit the Notifications Settings section of the Website Toolbox admin area.

   If the Outgoing Email Address option already uses the domain name that you set up DKIM for, it will detect the new DKIM record, will enable DKIM, and will show a green check mark next to DKIM.

   If you haven't updated the Outgoing Email Address with an email address that uses the domain name, update it and the DKIM status will appear next to the Outgoing Email Address option. Then press the Save button.

   If the green check mark is not appearing next to DKIM, note that it may take up to 1 hour for Website Toolbox to detect your DKIM DNS changes. If the check mark is still not green after 1 hour, please contact us.

Once DKIM and SPF has been set up, we recommend setting up your Send Returned Email To email address.

If you still need help, please contact us.