Customers using Issuetrak's Cloud service can use one of the below three methods to configure outbound email for their site(s):
Use Issuetrak's mail service with a Myissuetrak.com sender domain
Issue notifications will be sent from the Myissuetrak.com email domain.
Advantages
- Simple to set up
- No further configuration necessary within Issuetrak
Disadvantages
- Issue notifications from Issuetrak will not be sent from within your own domain, so it may be necessary to adjust your organization's spam filters and/or whitelist emails coming from the Myissuetrak.com domain to allow messages to be delivered.
Use Issuetrak's mail service with your own sender domain
This will require changes to your SPF record to allow Issuetrak to send on behalf of your domain. This involves signing into your organization's DNS provider to edit the SPF and adding the domain notifications.issuetrak.com to the record.
Advantages
- Issue notifications from Issuetrak will appear to come from your own domain
Disadvantages
- This method is a form of email sender spoofing if not implemented correctly. If your SPF record isn't adjusted prior to configuring this option, emails will likely be flagged as spam and/or "potentially malicious" since the email headers will display an origin outside your domain.
- It is necessary to give Issuetrak permission to send on behalf of your domain by editing your SPF record.
What is SPF?
SPF is short for Sender Policy Framework. It is an open standard that is used by domain administrators to designate servers as specific IP addresses or hostnames that can send on behalf of (or spoof) their domain. This is accomplished by publishing an SPF record. In the email world, spoofing a domain without that domain administrator's permission is generally frowned upon. When a server that is not listed in the record attempts to spoof the domain accepting email, then the incoming email can be delivered, passed along but marked as potential spam, or rejected outright.
All DNS providers are different, but here are the general steps that need to happen:
- Sign in to your organization's DNS provider.
- Find your SPF record. If you do not have one, go ahead and create a new TXT record for the domain.
- Add notifications.issuetrak.com to the record.
For example:
A record that allows notifications.issuetrak.com to send emails from your domain, but doesn't affect other mail delivery, could look like this:
v=spf1 include:notifications.issuetrak.com ?all
Alternatively, a record that allows both Google and Issuetrak to send emails from your domain could look like this:
v=spf1 include:spf.google.com include:notifications.issuetrak.com ?all - Save the record.
Use your own mail service with your own sender domain
You will need server and authentication details for your organization's mail server.
Advantages
- You control most of the infrastructure associated with email delivery once it leaves Issuetrak's Cloud.
- No SPF record change is necessary since the entire email delivery infrastructure will be handled by your organization.
Disadvantages:
- Initial setup could be more complicated:
- You'll need mail server name and port info.
- An email account matching the sending address must first be configured for the address on your own organization's email server.
