To send emails from your own email address, you may need to make some minor Domain Name System (DNS) changes with your domain service provider that authorise Humaans to send emails on your behalf. This might seem confusing because it's something most of us rarely do. If you're uncomfortable making these changes, or do not have access yourself, please reach out to your system administrator or whoever helped set up your domain.
A note on public domains
It's unfortunately not possible to use an email address on a public domain (like Gmail or Yahoo) to send emails through Humaans. This is because sending emails from a domain you don’t control can be viewed as email spoofing and is prohibited by many email providers. Additionally, in order to increase email deliverability, you will need to modify DNS entries for the domain. Public email accounts do not provide any way for you to change DNS settings.
Adding a Return-Path record
The process for updating your DNS settings will differ depending on who you host your domain with. But the basic steps are very similar for popular domain hosts like Google Domains, AWS, GoDaddy or Cloudflare.
Sign in to the management console for your domain host.
Locate the page where you add/update DNS records.
Add a new CNAME record.
Add pm-bounces as the CNAME record name.
Add pm.mtasv.net as the CNAME record value.
Save your changes.
What about the SPF record?
You don't need to add SPF records to send emails from Humaans. The Return-Path domain is used by receiving email domains to check for SPF alignment. Have a look at this article by Postmark explaining why SPF is no longer required.
Troubleshooting Return-Path record
Sometimes DNS providers will automatically add your domain to the Return-Path hostname value so that it ends up as pm.mtasv.net.example.com. If you’re seeing this, try adding a . (dot) to the end of the value to avoid this happening.
i.e. pm.mtasv.net. instead of pm.mtasv.net
Troubleshooting with specific hosts and DNS providers
We have listed some troubleshooting tips on adding DNS records for some common hosts and DNS providers:
Crazy Domains
DNS records cannot be managed through the domain settings but you can manage the DNS inside the Linux Control Panel. You will need to add the DKIM records inside the Linux Hosting cPanel as set out in the steps below:
Sign in using the account manager credentials on the website. (Skip if you are already logged in)
On the account manager click on the "Cloud" icon saying "Web Hosting".
Click on the website that you wanted to update (Skip if you only have 1 hosting).
Click on the orange box that is saying "Control Panel".
You will land on the "Hosting Manager" page.
Find "Domains" and click the "Zone Editor".
Cloudflare
If you are having trouble with DNS configuration for Cloudfare, try updating the particular CNAME record to be set to DNS only instead of the default "proxied" that Cloudflare adds automatically.
Visit Cloudflare's help article: Manage DNS records
DNSSimple
A supported DNS record type can be managed from the DNSSimple editor. There is a list of useful guides and information on their Website.
DigitalOcean
Instructions to create and manage DNS records for DigitalOcean are covered here.
Note that DigitalOcean states that changes to records will not take effect until you have updated your nameservers with your domain registrar and those changes have propagated - this can take up to 48 hours.
Utilise a Diagnostic tool
A Network and Diagnostic lookup such as MXToolbox is very useful to test your Return-path and identify where the issue might be.
Usually your DNS is managed by your hosting provider and is where you will add these records. However, this is not always the case. For some DNS providers (DNSimple for example) you will need to add your Return-Path records there instead of with your hosting provider.
To check your return path setup, copy the domain name over to MXToolbox and select CNAME Lookup from the drop down.
If you run into trouble or have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at team@humaans.io