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Set up the domains hosted by Business Catalyst to use Microsoft Lync Online from Microsoft Office 365

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 16:04:24 GMT

With Lync Online, you can stay in touch with colleagues, partners, and customers by using features such as instant messaging, audio and video conferences, and online meetings. For details, see Lync Online – Unified Communications in the Cloud - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/lync-online.aspx

Now when you set up to use our hosting services you may need to set up two service records in order to be able to use Microsoft Lync Online services

A Service record (SRV record) is a specification of data in the Domain Name System defining the location, i.e. the hostname and port number, of servers for specified services (in our case Microsoft Lync Online services). For more details about SRV records please have a look at this link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRV_record

The Service records that needs to be set up in the Business Catalyst DNS tool are as follows:

_sip_tls 3600 in SRV 1 100 443 sipdir.online.lync.com that can be defined as shown in this screenshot - http://screencasteu.worldsecuresystems.com/Andrei/2012-08-22_1849.png.

Note: the Record Data for this SRV record should be: 100 1 443 sipdir.online.lync.com

_sipfederationtls._tcp 3600 in SRV 1 100 5061 sipfed.online.lync.com that can be defined as shown in this screenshot - http://screencasteu.worldsecuresystems.com/Andrei/2012-08-22_1851.png

Note: the Record Data for this SRV record should be: 100 1 5061 sipfed.online.lync.com

In order to see if you have properly configured those service records you can simply use the command prompt and perform a nslookup as shown below:

nslookup -type=srv _sip_tls.mydomain.com and the output should be something as shown in this screenshot - http://screencasteu.worldsecuresystems.com/Andrei/2012-08-22_1915.png

nslookup -type=srv _sipfederationtls._tcp.mydomain.com and the output should be something as shown in this screenshot - http://screencasteu.worldsecuresystems.com/Andrei/2012-08-22_1918.png

Note: the nslookup command will work only for machines that are running under Windows

Andrei

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) - Document addressed only for customers that are NOT using Business Catalyst as hosting provider

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:04:28 GMT

SPF General Overview:

SPF also known as Sender Policy Framework is a protocol that help you controlling forged e-mail. SPF is not directly about stopping spam, junk email. It is about giving domain owners a way to say which mail sources are legitimate for their domain and which ones aren't. While not all spam is forged, virtually all forgeries are spam. SPF is not anti-spam in the same way that flour is not food: it is part of the solution.

If a domain publishes an SPF record, spammers and phishers are less likely to forge e-mails pretending to be from that domain, since the forged e-mails are more likely to be caught in spam filters which check the SPF record. Therefore, an SPF-protected domain is less attractive to spammers and phishers. Since an SPF-protected domain is less attractive as a spoofed address, it is less likely to be blacklisted by spam filters and so ultimately the legitimate e-mail from the domain is more likely to get through.

How it works:

Let's say a spammer forges a yahoo.com address and tries to spam you. They connect from somewhere other than Yahoo.

When his message is sent, you see MAIL FROM: <forged_address@yahoo.com>, but you don't have to take his word for it. You can ask Yahoo if the IP address comes from their network.

(In this example) Yahoo publishes an SPF record. That record tells you (your computer) how to find out if the sending machine is allowed to send mail from Yahoo.

If Yahoo says they recognize the sending machine, it passes, and you can assume the sender is who they say they are. If the message fails SPF tests, it's a forgery. That's how you can tell it's probably a spammer.

This is definitely something that I want so what should I do next to have this in place?

Since you are not using Business Catalyst's hosting service you need to go to your hosting provider and create the following record:

Record name should be something like @(or enter the non-WWW domain) to map the record directly to your domain name

Record type should be TXT

Record value should be v=spf1 mx include:worldsecuresystems.com ~all

Record TTL should be 1 day (86400 seconds) - TTL represents how long the server should cache the information.

You have below links on how to add TXT records from some of the biggest hosting providers:

GoDaddy - http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/7925/adding-or-editing-txt-records

HOSTGATOR - https://support.hostgator.com/articles/specialized-help/email/problems-with-spoof-spf

BLUEHOST - https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/559

JUST HOST - https://my.justhost.com/cgi/help/559

Having trouble receiving emails sent from Business Catalyst? Learn about SPF (Sender Policy Framework) - Updated on 26.03.2013 after Business Catalyst March’s release.

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:43:58 GMT

What is SPF and how I can benefit from setting a proper SPF record?

What does SPF actually DO?

Let's say a spammer forges a yahoo.com address and tries to spam you.

They connect from somewhere other than Yahoo.

When his message is sent, you see MAIL FROM: <forged_address@yahoo.com>, but you don't have to take his word for it. You can ask Yahoo if the IP address comes from their network.

(In this example) Yahoo publishes an SPF record. That record tells you (your computer) how to find out if the sending machine is allowed to send mail from Yahoo.

I’m not a programmer, I don’t understand this, I just want my email delivered!

Believe us, we feel your pain and we are here to help you!

If you are choosing to host your domain with us there is no need to do anything here. Based on our system architecture we are generating that SPF record so that all the emails sent from this domain will have include all the IPs from where emails are being sent and make sure that you will pass the SPF check.

Note, the from address should be set up to using the domain hosted with us.

If you are choosing to host the domain with an external provider you may need to define it at their end.

Keep in mind that you need to define the SPF record for the domain that you are using as as from address - http://screencasteu.worldsecuresystems.com/Andrei/2012-04-18_0755.png for emails sent from Business Catalyst (e.g. workflow notifications, invoice emails etc.).

Now let's see how the SPF record is being defined by Business Catalyst.

We are defining the SPF record as follows:

"v=spf1 mx include:worldsecuresystems.com ~all"

What this means? The “mx” means to include the MX records as being legitimate IPs for sending emails. So if you are using external mail services as long as emails are being sent through the MX IPs then the record cover this. Next we are including the domain worldsecuresystems.com. When including a domain, the SPF record will take all data defined in the SPF record for the domain included (this is by design).

If you check the SPF record of worldsecuresystems.com you will see listed all the IPs from where we are sending emails using ours or OpenSRS’ (our mail service provider) mail servers.

The last part ~all is an operator stating that if the email is received from an IP that is not listed in the SPF record then the email should be discarded. This is interpreted by the mail servers as possible spammer and act accordingly.

If you want to include other IPs or subnets all you have to do is to include the following syntax:

Ip4:XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/YY where XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is the IP from where you are sending emails and YY is the subnet. Also you can include domains by using include:domain.com if you want to use the hostname of the mail servers instead of IPs in case if IPs of the mail servers are changed periodically.

Here is how you need to define this record in BC if you want to add more IPs/domain - http://screencasteu.worldsecuresystems.com/Andrei/2013-03-26_1723.png

Note: The comments added prior to 26.03.2013 might contain obsolete information.