Understanding DMARC

Overview:

There have been some changes made by e-mail providers such as AOL and Yahoo! regarding how e-mail messages are approved for deliverability.

In summary, e-mail providers are trying to prevent “e-mail spoofing” of a From address.  You can do a Google search for “DMARC” and find various articles on the topic.  Most of them are a bit confusing and not a great read.

The non-technical explanation is that e-mail providers such as AOL and Yahoo! will no longer allow someone to send an e-mail with a From address of @aol.com or @yahoo.com, unless the e-mail originates from their actual e-mail server.

You can view AOL’s DMARC Policy at http://postmaster-blog.aol.com/2014/04/22/aol-mail-updates-dmarc-policy-to-reject and Yahoo’s DMARC Policy at https://help.yahoo.com/kb/postmaster/yahoo-dmarc-policy-sln24050.html.

Please note that this is not specific to Colony One or our service.  This will impact every company, every website form with a From field, and numerous other types of communication distribution tools.
 

What to do?

1. You will need to send e-mail using a From address that is your own website domain, and not AOL, Yahoo!, Gmail, etc…  For example, we would send From support@colony1.net.  You will have to setup a domain e-mail address with your Registrar (ie: GoDaddy, Network Solutions, etc…).  As a side benefit, this also looks more professional to your customers.
    
2. In order to ensure that your messages are delivered to the recipients, you will need to add our e-mail server’s “information” within your domain's DNS Records.  Once you have setup a domain e-mail address, we will provide you with the DNS Records to add. This association serves as proof that you are truly the one sending the e-mail and own that domain.