p) · what receivers do with mail that fails DMARC
Aggregate reports are daily XML summaries from receivers such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Failure (forensic) reports copy individual failing messages; few receivers send them, and they can contain personal data.
Relaxed alignment lets mail signed or sent from a subdomain (mail.example.com) count for example.com; strict needs an exact match. Most receivers send aggregate reports once a day whatever ri says.
fo) · used only with ruf
Your DMARC record
| Host | |
| Type | TXT |
| Value |
Some DNS dashboards add the domain to the host for you; there, enter just _dmarc.
Roll it out in stages
- Start with
p=noneand anruaaddress. Read the reports for 2 to 4 weeks and fix SPF and DKIM for every service that sends as your domain. - Move to
p=quarantine, optionally with a lowpctyou raise to 100, and keep watching the reports. - Finish at
p=reject, so spoofed mail is refused outright.
Check the published DMARC, SPF and DKIM records once the record is live.
About the DMARC Record Generator
This tool builds a DMARC record (RFC 7489): the TXT record at _dmarc.<domain> that tells receivers what to do with mail that fails SPF and DKIM alignment, and where to send reports. Choose the policy p (none, quarantine or reject), an optional subdomain policy sp, the percentage pct the policy applies to, aggregate (rua) and failure (ruf) report addresses, strict or relaxed alignment for DKIM (adkim) and SPF (aspf), failure report options fo and the report interval ri.
Tags at their defaults (pct=100, relaxed alignment, ri=86400) are omitted. Report addresses are checked and written as mailto: URIs. When reports go to a domain other than your own, the tool shows the authorization record that domain must publish, <yourdomain>._report._dmarc.<theirdomain> with the value v=DMARC1, or receivers won't send to it.
How to use it
- Enter your domain.
- Start with
p=noneand an aggregate report address. - Adjust the other tags if you need to.
- Create a TXT record at
_dmarc.<domain>with the value shown. - Once it's live, check it with the email checker.
Examples
- Build a DMARC record for example.com: a monitoring record such as
v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@example.com. - Check an existing policy: see the DMARC record a domain publishes now.
Common questions
How should I roll out DMARC?
In stages. Run p=none for a few weeks and read the aggregate reports, fix SPF and DKIM for every legitimate sender, move to p=quarantine (optionally with a lower pct), then finish at p=reject.
Does DMARC need both SPF and DKIM?
It passes when either one passes and aligns with the From domain. Set up both: forwarding often breaks SPF, while DKIM survives it.
What does pct do?
With pct=25, the policy applies to a quarter of failing mail; the rest is treated one level lower, so reject falls back to quarantine.
Related tools
- SPF Record Generator: build the SPF record DMARC relies on.
- SPF, DKIM & DMARC Checker: verify the published records.
- DNS Lookup: look up
_dmarcTXT records directly.