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Get a domain ready to host mailboxes. At the end, its DNS status reads DNS verified and you can start adding addresses.
Before you start:
  • You need access to your domain’s DNS settings at your DNS provider.
  • Your organization needs a Mailbox plan. New organizations start on the free plan, which includes one mail domain.
  • Any member of the organization can add mail domains and mailboxes.
1

Open the Add Mail Domain panel

In the sidebar, select Mailboxes, then select Add Mail Domain.
2

Enter your domain

In Domain, enter the domain people’s addresses will be on. For jane@example.com, enter example.com. Select Add Mail Domain.The domain appears in Your Mail Domains with the DNS status Setup pending.If the same domain is already one of your sending domains, Brudcast links the two automatically and the Sends campaigns column shows Yes. That changes the SPF record you publish in the next step.
3

Copy the DNS records

Select the domain name to open it. On the Complete your mail domain setup banner, select View DNS Records, or open the DNS Records tab.The records are grouped:
  • Receiving records: the MX record that routes inbound mail to Brudcast.
  • Authentication records: SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
  • Autodiscovery records: optional records that help some mail clients set themselves up.
  • Shared records: shown only when the domain is also a sending domain. These serve both.
Each row has copy buttons for Host (name) and Value (points to). The DKIM record is added once Brudcast has generated your domain’s signing key. If it isn’t listed yet, check the tab again later.
4

Publish the records with your DNS provider

Create each record at your DNS provider, copying the host and value exactly. Every record is explained in The record set below.
A domain can have only one SPF record and one DMARC record. If it already has either, don’t add a second. Read The SPF record and The DMARC record first.
5

Verify

Back on the domain’s page, select Verify DNS. Brudcast checks every record and updates the Status column on the DNS Records tab. The strip at the top shows Routing, DKIM, SPF and DMARC.The domain becomes DNS verified when the MX record and the DKIM record match. SPF, DMARC and the autodiscovery records are checked and shown too, but they don’t decide the status.

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The record set

Every record is published with a TTL of 300 seconds. In the table, example.com stands for your domain. Copy the exact values from the DNS Records tab rather than from this page: the DKIM value is unique to your domain. The MX record is what tells other mail servers to deliver your domain’s mail to Brudcast. If the domain already receives mail elsewhere, remove the old MX records once you’re ready to switch, so all mail goes to one place.
The autodiscovery records don’t point at a live server yet. The four autoconfig, autodiscover and SRV records advertise hostnames on prod.brudcast.org that aren’t serving IMAP or SMTP today. They’re optional and marked “No” for verification, so you can publish them or leave them out — but a mail client that picks them up will fail to connect. Set your client up with the manual settings (mail.brudcast.io, IMAP 993, SMTP 465) instead. See Connect a mail client.

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The SPF record

A domain can publish only one SPF record, and the mail domain’s record sits at the domain itself, so it has to describe every service that sends as your domain. A mail-domain-only record covers everything Brudcast sends for the domain, so -all tells receivers to reject anything else. When the domain also sends campaigns, ~all is used instead, so legitimate mail from another sender of yours isn’t bounced.
If the domain already has an SPF record, for example for your office email provider, don’t publish a second one. Two SPF records make SPF fail for every message. Add Brudcast’s include: terms to the existing record instead, and keep a single all at the end.

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The DMARC record

The generated policy is p=none, which is monitoring only: receivers report on failing mail but don’t reject it. A domain can have only one DMARC record. The value is identical to the one generated for a sending domain, so one record serves both.

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The autodiscovery records

These are optional. They let a mail client find its server settings from an email address alone: autoconfig is used by Thunderbird, autodiscover by Outlook, and the two SRV records advertise where clients read mail (_imaps) and send it (_submission). Whether or not you publish them, check the settings a client fills in against Connect a mail client.

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Sharing records with a sending domain

When a mail domain and one of your sending domains have the same name, Brudcast links them, whichever you added first.
  • SPF and DMARC move to Shared records on both the mail domain’s and the sending domain’s DNS tab, so each is published once rather than on both.
  • The SPF value includes both paths: the sending domain’s brd.spf delegation and the mailbox servers, ending in ~all. Without both, one of the two kinds of mail would fail SPF.
  • Everything else stays separate. The sending domain’s SPF delegation CNAME, its two DKIM CNAMEs at brd1._domainkey and brd2._domainkey, and its tracking CNAME have their own names, as do the mail domain’s MX, DKIM and autodiscovery records. None of them collide, because a domain can hold as many DKIM records as it has selectors.
If you add the sending domain after the mail domain is already set up, the generated SPF value changes from -all to ~all and gains the brd.spf include. Update the SPF record at your DNS provider to match, or campaign mail will fail SPF.

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What happens next

  • Brudcast re-checks every mail domain’s records once a day. If a required record disappears, the status changes to Not routing.
  • The routing panel on the Mailboxes tab says whether inbound mail is being delivered. See How mail reaches a mailbox.
  • You can create mailboxes now. You don’t have to wait for verification. Mailboxes can sign in and send before the records are published, but they won’t receive mail until the MX record is in place.

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Troubleshooting

Why: domains that belong to Brudcast, such as brudcast.com and brudcastmail.com, can’t host your mailboxes.Fix: add a domain you own.
Why: your organization has already added this domain.Fix: open it from the Your Mail Domains table instead of adding it again.
Why: your Mailbox plan’s mail domain allowance is used up. The free and Starter plans include one mail domain.Fix: remove a mail domain you no longer use, or move to a larger plan. See Plans and subscriptions.
Why: the MX or DKIM record is missing, or its value differs from what Brudcast generated. Values are compared exactly, ignoring only letter case and a trailing dot.Fix: compare each record at your provider with the DNS Records tab. A common slip is a provider that appends your domain to the host automatically, which turns example.com into example.com.example.com. Enter only the part your provider asks for, wait a few minutes, then select Verify DNS again.
Why: SPF and DMARC are marked verified only when the published value matches the generated value exactly. If you merged Brudcast’s SPF into an existing record, or kept your own DMARC policy, the check won’t match. That doesn’t change the domain’s status.Fix: if you merged on purpose, no action is needed. Otherwise publish the value shown on the DNS Records tab.

Create a mailbox

Add the first addresses on your domain.

Connect a mail client

Sign in from Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird or Gmail.

Sending domain DNS records

The records for campaign and API mail.