C9 hosts a number of websites integrated into the c9 DMS

Correct functioning of the website involves website having the ability to send emails to your website customers as though they came from you.

Reliable / safe email sending involves configuring a number of things in your email setup to permit c9's webservers to send these emails.

In scenarios where this is not setup, c9 will instead send emails direct to your client as donotreply@c8software.com.au

Two things need to be setup

1. Sender protection framework (SPF)
2. (Optional)  Domain Keys Identified Email (DKIM)
3. (Optional)  DMARC

Setting up SPF to allow c9 to send email

A SPF record is a record configured on your domain name that identifies servers which are allowed to send your email. So receiver emails can confirm the email was sent from a legitimate source

Say your website email is configured to be xyz@bbmotorcycles.com.au

Your DNS record for SPF is currently:

dig -t TXT bbmotorcycles.com.au

v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf.ess.au.barracudanetworks.com -all

To enable C9 to send email for you, you need to also include the following into your SPF record

v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf.ess.au.barracudanetworks.com include:spf.c8software.com.au -all

To add include:spf.c8software.com.au into your entry

If you don't have a SPF entry at all first contact your local IT who look after your email support to setup a SPF record. Have them add c9's include component as part of that initial setup

Configuring DKIM

DKIM is an encrypted signature on emails to confirm the email has not been tampered with. It doesn't full cryptographic invisibility but it does provide tamper protection and an additional statement of authenticity about the sender of the email.

DKIM is harder to get right than SPF so generally most people don't bother. If you run DKIM on your email contact c9 support and we can help make sure emails sent by C9's webservers are also DKIM encrypted.

For c9, DKIM encryption requires dropping a DKIM entry on your domain. It will look like this:

dig -t TXT webserver._domainkey.c8software.com.au

;; ANSWER SECTION:

webserver._domainkey.c8software.com.au. 1800 IN TXT "v=DKIM1; h=sha256; k=rsa;  " 
"p=MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAwXe37QWsDEHRcm90wGqGq6jMySQRfo0DbM6nPyOeP89XJayeSrvF2A6BPPV7QWAvAVW7w4kKwDVtoOPPwav6YpOgbB4eUvZFBpFNT7OZXMqle1p4OPajtPZGsrlPiqSS0qGPEo3ZsR3OXWPn4inwNTlbooANFkEw46JC3SCwEuTj1rnO4p9WMYZSCbtYsn9fZNUhgdcmBKyLbE6Ik" 
"Twy6fK2MShoDjQ22oBs/ou4vrVASoJtRw8YC8zJ1o6ZEgzqNEuPnYjTI6CYm/EZojPBB0vQvZnGZB6XSn9rjjijazP+o22j0QHqRlptV8p2bdRmDLMeA73QMGmGyL9rlCJUDQIDAQAB"

Once DKIM entry above is added to your domain let us know and we will then configure our email servers to sign outbound email

Some background

Two key scenarios where c9 sends email is as follows:

• initial order notification when order is submitted on website (Followup emails +invoices are sent by c9 itself)
• Password reset requests
• Email address verification requests