Three DNS CNAME records authorize the email domain to send. From this moment on, you can send e-mails to any sender under your domain, and you risk less to end up in SPAM.
What is a DNS CNAME record?
CNAME entries are nothing more than a shortcut or nickname.
A DNS CNAME record is like a nickname for an Internet address. Imagine you have a long name like “deineid.ch.app.aivie.ch”, but you want people to call you “cool-page.ch”. A CNAME record allows you to make this nickname connection.
When someone types “cool-page.ch”, the CNAME record automatically forwards the request to “yourid.ch.app.aivie.ch”. So it’s a handy way to give your website a simpler and easier to remember name without having to change the actual address. The user does not notice this redirection.
What is a DNS CNAME DKIM record?
DKIM stands for “DomainKeys Identified Mail” and is a technology that is used to make e-mails more secure and to protect them from forged senders.
Imagine you want to make sure the emails you send are really coming from you and not someone else pretending to be you. This is where the DKIM entry comes into play.
When you set up DKIM on your email server, it creates a special digital “signature” code for each outgoing email. This code is unique to your domain and will be added to the header of the email.
Now, when the email arrives at the recipient’s end, their email server can check the DKIM entry in the email. It compares the signature with the information stored in your DKIM public key on your DNS server.
If the signature is valid and matches the public key, the recipient knows that the email actually came from your server and has not been tampered with.
DKIM thus helps to ensure that your emails are trusted and less likely to be considered spam or phishing, as their authenticity is confirmed by the digital signature.
Why do I need to set up DKIM entries?
Setting up DKIM is necessary to allow Aivie to send emails through your domain and to make sure that your emails are less likely to end up in the recipient’s spam folder.
How do I set up CNAME DKIM entries?
The actual setup varies greatly depending on the DNS provider (e.g. Namecheap, Cyon, Hostpoint, GoDaddy). The following is a general sequence of tasks:
- Run the Aivie Setup Wizard and make a note of your CNAME DKIM entries.
- Log in to your DNS provider
- Choose your email domain
- Click on Add CNAME
- Leave in the field “TTL” the default value
- In the Name field, specify the value received from Aivie.
- In the “Value”, “Value” or “Points to” field, specify the URL received from Aivie
- Click Add
Note that it can take up to 24h for the entry to become active.
Depending on the hoster you have to specify your top-level domain (e.g. your-domain.ch),
or it is already “pre-filled”.
For certain hosters, “DKIM” is also a separate DNS record type. Then you should select this instead of CNAME.
An example of CNAME-DKIM entries
It always takes three entries for the entry to be valid. Thereby the contributions differ only with the cryptic key. Within an entry the cryptic key is identical at the “name” and at the “value”.
| Type | Name (Host) | TTL | Value (Value) |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNAME | abcvclgf3ydj123dmw2zsypgqkujabc._domainkey.your-domain.ch | 4 h | abcvclgf3ydj123dmw2zsypgqkujabc.dkim.amazonses.com |
| CNAME | defvclgf3ydj123dmw2zsypgqkujabc._domainkey.your-domain.ch | 4 h | defvclgf3ydj123dmw2zsypgqkujabc.dkim.amazonses.com |
| CNAME | ghjvclgf3ydj123dmw2zsypgqkujabc._domainkey.your-domain.ch | 4 h | ghjvclgf3ydj123dmw2zsypgqkujabc.dkim.amazonses.com |
Example of a CNAME entry at Hosttech
Example for a CNAME entry at Namecheap
