SMTP servers and SPF information

SMTP servers and SPF information

Mail being sent to Leads, Contacts or whatever from within Zoho CRM could be rejected by spam tests if the receiving server checks SPF records. For example, sending mail to anyone at Gmail or Google Apps will include these headers in the message:

Received-SPF: fail
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=hardfail

The reason is that the Zoho mail servers are not "authorized" to send mail for the sender's (the From: address) domain.

Google is still delivering this mail for now, but other mail providers, and certainly private companies, could reject mail based on the SPF failure.

It seems like there are two possible solutions:

1) Zoho could post the names and IP addresses of any SMTP server that could possibly be sending Zoho CRM mail. Then each administrator could set up their SPF information properly. The server names/addresses could be posted in the CRM Setup/Admin Settings page if it varies from one customer to another. If it's the same for everyone it could be posted in a common help file.

2) Zoho CRM could allow administrators to specify an alternate SMTP server (including user ID, password, and SSL requirement).

The second option would be the preferred solution since it avoids everyone having to change their SPF data, and monitoring for any changes in Zoho SMTP servers. This also allows companies to use the same attachment limits and virus scans that are normally applied to their e-mail.