Microsoft to begin checking for SPF with inbound email to Hotmail, MSN - 2,153 Views, 9 Comments
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Microsoft has announced that they will begin checking email coming in to Hotmail, MSN and Microsoft.com to determine whether the sending server has published a valid SPF record. The change is to occur on the first of October. It makes sense, given that they have merged their own Caller I.D. for Email with SPF. According to Microsoft, email coming from a server which does not publish an SPF record will not be out and out rejected but “will be further scrutinized and filtered”. SPF - it’s not just a good idea.
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Microsoft to begin checking for SPF with inbound email to Hotmail, MSN
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Previous Article « A Really Bad Idea: Register Your Child’s Email Address with the Michigan or Utah Email Child Protection Registery
Read Next Article » I’m Sorry Teacher, the Spam Filter Ate My IPO
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You know, it would really help to know what an SPF is in the first place before asking for comments from us dumb computer users. Wouldn’t it? “A valid SPF record”? What is that?
Comment by Dick Zeisler — 7/28/2004 @ 12:50 am
SPF is Sender Policy Framework
SPF fights email address forgery and makes it easier to identify spams, worms, and viruses.
Domain owners identify sending mail servers in DNS.
SMTP receivers verify the envelope sender address against this information, and can distinguish legitimate mail from spam before any message data is transmitted.
Comment by Hugh — 7/28/2004 @ 3:32 am
Thank you! I too was wondering what the heck SPF was… You folks need to keep in mind not all of us out here are computer geeks…. Give us a break and provide a few words of explaination. It goes a long way!
Comment by Bob — 7/28/2004 @ 9:05 am
AMEN!!!
Comment by Jeff — 7/28/2004 @ 10:14 am
SPF - and I thought that was for sun blocking only - that darn Microsquish is into everything
Comment by Saywho — 7/28/2004 @ 3:24 pm
SPF also stands for Stateful Packet Inspection - a type of firewall - the best one. Too bad they couldn’t choose another name with a different acrnym.
Comment by Marc Erickson — 7/28/2004 @ 11:55 pm
And, SPF in router terminology is Shortest Path First. kinda confusing!
Comment by Eric — 8/2/2004 @ 3:50 pm
There are only so many possible TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) out there (17576 by my calculations), and it has to make some sort of sense…
When I had to write college exams, I remember that if I wanted to use an acronym, I had to define it the first time I used it. This kind of practice definitely makes it easier to avoid confusion. It’s standard practice writing programs, too, so the geeks have no excuse…
If we humans didn’t have to take shortcuts all the time then it wouldn’t be a problem!
Comment by Revenant — 8/3/2004 @ 7:43 pm
What is your source for this? I don’t see anything about it on Google News, or at Microsoft’s Web site.
Comment by Scott Mace — 8/4/2004 @ 4:53 pm