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What is DMARC? Email authentication and domain alignment

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is an email authentication policy that checks whether a message’s authenticated sending identity aligns with the domain readers see in the From address.

SPF checks whether a sending server is authorized for a domain. DKIM uses a domain’s digital signature to authenticate a message. DMARC adds alignment with the visible From domain: at least one of those mechanisms must both authenticate and align for DMARC to pass. (Google email sender guidelines ↗ · RFC 9989: DMARC)

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Checking a real delivered message

A newsletter arrives with a visible From address at publisher.example. The sender checks the received message’s authentication results to see whether SPF or DKIM passed with a domain aligned to that From domain, then checks the published DMARC policy to understand how failures are handled. A DNS record alone does not prove that this message passed.

What the published policy changes

A published policy can request monitoring, quarantine or rejection of failing messages, while the receiving system makes its own handling decision. Inspect actual delivered-message results after changing an email provider. A correct DNS record alone does not prove your newsletters authenticate or reach the inbox.

Check each sending path when results differ

A newsletter and a receipt can look as if they come from the same brand but use separate sending systems. Inspect a delivered message from each. Save the result alongside the system that sent it so the right owner can fix an alignment problem.

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