What is DMARC?

DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance. A DMARC Policy helps prevent email phishing and spoofing by providing a way for email senders to authenticate their messages. It specifies how email receivers should handle messages that fail authentication checks, allowing organizations to protect their domain from unauthorized use in phishing attempts.

What's happening?

Starting in February 2024, Google and Yahoo will require all email senders that send over 5,000 messages a day to have a DMARC policy and ensure all email is correctly aligned with DKIM and SPF. After this date, non-compliant messages will be significantly more likely to be considered spam and may be discarded. Sonic will be signing all outbound emails with DKIM and have a DMARC policy in place, so messages sent through our services should be unaffected and delivered as expected. But, simply stated, email sent from sonic.net or a domain for which we handle email that does not originate from our servers is not expected to reach its recipient once enforcement begins. This is not something Sonic has control over.

What to do?

If you use a third party to send mail for you, you will need to work with that third party to ensure your messages are compliant. Please note it is impossible for us to modify sonic.net's DKIM, SPF, or DMARC policies to suit an individual customer's needs. However, you may add or change the DNS records for any domains you host with us using the member tools per your providers' instructions. Some third-party email clients, e.g., Gmail, allow you to configure messages to be sent from mail.sonic.net, allowing you to continue using their mail client with your sonic.net-provided email addresses.

Gmail's instructions to do so are here.