Where the DNS zone lives at Cloudflare, Route 53, Namecheap, GoDaddy and others, how to add each record, and the trap that breaks verification.
Publish the five Brudcast records in your own DNS, at the provider that answers for your domain.
Before you start: open the domain’s DNS Records tab in Channels > Email > Domains and
keep it beside this page. Copy every name and value from there, because they’re generated for your
domain. You also need sign-in access to whoever hosts your DNS.
Providers disagree about the name field. Some want only the part in front of your zone and add
the zone themselves. Others want the full name. Getting it wrong produces names like
brd.spf.mail.example.com.example.com, and the domain never verifies.Every provider below takes the host part only. For a sending domain mail.example.com in the
zone example.com, that’s brd.spf.mail rather than brd.spf.mail.example.com. The full names and
their host parts are listed in DNS records.After you save the first record, read back the full name your provider shows. If it’s doubled, edit
the record and remove the extra domain.
Where the zone is: sign in to Cloudflare, select the domain, then open DNS > Records.Add a CNAME: select Add record. Set Type to CNAME, Name to the host part,
and Target to the value from Brudcast. Set TTL to Auto or 300. Set
Proxy status to DNS only.Add a TXT: select Add record, set Type to TXT, Name to _dmarc.mail, and
paste the DMARC policy into Content.
The proxy must be off. Cloudflare turns the orange cloud on for new CNAMEs. A proxied
record answers with Cloudflare’s own addresses instead of the Brudcast target, so the SPF
delegation never resolves as required and verification fails. Set Proxy status to
DNS only (the grey cloud) on all four Brudcast CNAMEs. TXT records are never proxied.
Where the zone is: open the Route 53 console, go to Hosted zones, and select the hosted
zone for your domain.Add a CNAME: select Create record. Set Record name to the host part, Record type
to CNAME, and Value to the target from Brudcast. Use Simple routing and a TTL of
300.Add a TXT: create a record with Record typeTXT, and paste the DMARC policy into
Value wrapped in double quotes:
TXT values need quoting. Route 53 stores a TXT value exactly as you type it, so an
unquoted policy is either refused or published in a form the DMARC check never matches. Quote
TXT values only. Don’t quote CNAME targets.
Where the zone is: open Domain List, select Manage on the domain, then the
Advanced DNS tab.Add a CNAME: select Add New Record and choose CNAME Record. Put the host part in
Host and the Brudcast target in Value. Set TTL to 300, or leave Automatic.Add a TXT: select Add New Record, choose TXT Record, put _dmarc.mail in Host
and the DMARC policy in Value.
A CNAME can’t share its host with another record. If a row is refused when you save,
something already sits at that host, often a parked-page or URL-redirect record Namecheap
added for you. Delete that record first, then add the Brudcast CNAME.
Where the zone is: open the domain’s DNS page from your product list.Add a CNAME: select Add, set Type to CNAME, put the host part in Name and
the Brudcast target in Value. Set TTL to 300 seconds where the option is offered.Add a TXT: select Add, set Type to TXT, put _dmarc.mail in Name and the
DMARC policy in Value.
Never type your domain in the Name field. GoDaddy adds it for you. Typing the full name
produces brd.spf.mail.example.com.example.com, which resolves to nothing and is the most
common reason a GoDaddy-hosted domain won’t verify. Enter the host part only.
Where the zone is: Google Domains registrations are managed at Squarespace now. Open the
domain’s settings there and go to its DNS settings, then the custom records section.Add a CNAME: add a custom record. Put the host part in Host, set Type to CNAME,
and paste the Brudcast target into Data.Add a TXT: add a custom record with Host_dmarc.mail, TypeTXT, and the DMARC
policy in Data.
The value field is called Data. Both the CNAME target and the DMARC policy go there, not
in Host. Keep Host to the host part only.
Where the zone is: look for DNS, Zone editor, Name servers or Advanced DNS in
your provider’s control panel.Add the records: create four CNAME records and one TXT record, using the host part for the
name and the Brudcast value for the target. Set the TTL to 300 seconds if you can choose. Paste
TXT values exactly as shown.
Edit the zone that’s actually in use. Records count only at the provider your name servers
point to. If you moved your name servers, the old provider’s zone is ignored, however tidy it
looks. Turn off any proxy, CNAME flattening or web forwarding option on the Brudcast records:
each one answers with an address of its own instead of the Brudcast target.
Each answer should match the value on the DNS Records tab. An empty answer means the record
isn’t published or hasn’t propagated yet. A doubled name in the answer means the provider added your
zone to a name you typed in full.
