Send Connectors

Send Connectors allow you to enable the sending of emails via the SMTP protocol on behalf of specific domains. Each Send Connector can be configured, for example, on a creoline Managed Server or a Microsoft® Exchange® Server as a relay host to send outgoing emails via creoline Email Protection.

Create a Send Connector

In the Customer Center, navigate to the menu item Email Protection → Send Connectors and click the Create Send Connector button.

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Select the desired type and enter a custom name for the send connector so you can easily identify it later. If the send connector is to be used as a relay host for an existing managed server, we recommend using the server’s hostname as the name.

Authorize the domain for sending

After the send connector has been successfully created, navigate to the Authorized Domains tab.

Use the Add Domain button to authorize a new domain for sending.

Enter the full domain that you want to authorize for sending. If you want to send emails via a subdomain, e.g., news@mailings.creoline-demo.de, you must enter the full domain, i.e., mailings.creoline-demo.de.

Verify Domain Ownership

To obtain sending permissions for the domain, you must verify ownership of the domain.

To do this, create a new DNS record of the TXT resource record (RR) type with your DNS provider. The specified value, e.g., creoline-verification=86e1828056287e279c93eb37ee8b7a8a6c71c097, must be entered exactly as shown, without any spaces.

The DNS record must not be removed after successful verification, as Email Protection re-verifies domain ownership at regular intervals. If the DNS record is removed, you will automatically lose sending privileges for the authorized domain.

Once domain ownership has been successfully verified, the domain will automatically appear in the list of authorized domains.

SPF Check

The SPF check also verifies that your authorized domain includes the required SPF include mechanism.

If the SPF check fails, check your associated DNS zone for the required include mechanism. If this is missing, your emails may be rejected by the destination mail servers, depending on their settings.

Example DNS SPF record:

RR type: TXT
Host: @
Value: v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.creoline.de -all
TTL: 3600

Example using the domain creoline-demo.com:

creoline-demo.com.    3600  IN  TXT  "v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.creoline.de -all"

Create a new DNS record of the TXT record type for the domain you want to authorize. In this example, the entry shown above is created for creoline-demo.com.

You can verify your SPF record at any time using our DNS Dig tool:

https://help.creoline.com/tools/dig/TXT/creoline-demo.com

If the include:_spf.creoline.de mechanism does not appear in your SPF record, add it manually.

The SPF record is only checked automatically every 60 minutes, so it may take a few hours for the SPF check to be marked as successful.

DKIM Verification

To optionally sign emails using the DKIM method as well, you should publish the necessary TXT record in your DNS zone.

RR Type: TXT
Host: creoline._domainkey
Value: v=DKIM1; h=sha256; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDR0NpA0A91JTIFCBSzmrQU6T6adwC8IM5KE7jUjclB/H8ipI+/e7AabDmEQ3IM51IAVnZSD/KDh9v/7Y+RKu9XSiH/1lNL5HinWb3zncqeqOPx6eaoKSM1iA9YdsNvW9NOTEwZEM0e7sNjkNsMJMtmgGtrk3GUVSLnGA21k2hjfwIDAQAB
TTL: 86400

Example DNS DKIM record:

creoline._domainkey.creoline.com.    3600  IN  TXT  "v=DKIM1; h=sha256; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDR0NpA0A91JTIFCBSzmrQU6T6adwC8IM5KE7jUjclB/H8ipI+/e7AabDmEQ3IM51IAVnZSD/KDh9v/7Y+RKu9XSiH/1lNL5HinWb3zncqeqOPx6eaoKSM1iA9YdsNvW9NOTEwZEM0e7sNjkNsMJMtmgGtrk3GUVSLnGA21k2hjfwIDAQAB"

You can verify your DKIM record at any time using our DNS Dig tool:

https://help.creoline.com/tools/dig/TXT/creoline._domainkey.creoline.com

The DKIM record is only checked automatically every 60 minutes, so it may take a few hours for the DKIM check to be marked as successful.

DMARC Check

To ensure that destination servers know exactly how to handle an email in each scenario, the following DMARC record must also be created in the DNS zone.

RR type: TXT
Host: _dmarc
Value:  v=DMARC1; p=reject; rua=mailto:rua.dmarc@creolineserver.de; ruf=mailto:ruf.dmarc@creolineserver.de; rf=afrf; fo=1; pct=100; adkim=r; aspf=r
TTL: 86400

Example DNS DMARC record:

_dmarc.creoline.com.    300  IN  TXT  "v=DMARC1; p=reject; rua=mailto:rua.report@creoline.com; ruf=mailto:ruf.report@creoline.com; rf=afrf; fo=1; pct=100; adkim=r; aspf=r"

Use the following SMTP credentials to send emails:

Property	Value
SMTP Server	SMTP server is displayed in the Customer Center
SMTP Username:	Username is displayed in the Customer Center
SMTP Password:	Password is displayed in the Customer Center
SMTP Port:	587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (SSL/TLS)

You can find the login credentials for your Send Connector in the Customer Center under Email Protection → Send Connectors.

Rate limits apply to sending emails via our Send Connector. For more information on the currently valid rate limits, see the article:

Send Connector - Rate Limits