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Signing an email with DKIM, DKIM email signature
 
Hello,

I'm somewhat confused about DKIM authentication, but my understanding is that I must first publish a DKIM record with my domain host that contains a public key, which I've already done successfully with bluehost.  Then, in order for DKIM authentication to work I must digitally sign all of my emails with a DKIM signature that's somehow related to my corresponding private key, but I don't actually know what I'm talking about on this last part and I can't seem to understand how this mechanism works even after scouring the Web for hours.

Could someone please tell me what I need to do to send emails that can be DKIM authenticated?  Do I somehow need to associate my private key with each email I send?  If so, is there a way to do this with TheBat! or am I totally off base in my assumptions of how the DKIM mechanism works?

Thank you,
Ray
 
It may help if you explain why you want to do this. The only time I've needed to meddle with DKIM (and SPF) is when I'm sending email from a different domain than mine. (For example, I have an account with an email delivery site that sends messages to a few thousand people for me. I write the message and use their system to send it using my domain name. Since their domain is different from mine, I set up DKIM and SPF records on my host server that helps receiving domains to verify that my message isn't spam.) If you're sending email from your email host, I don't know why you need the setup (although I admit to not knowing a lot about DKIM, other than my own experience). I'm not aware of any private key needed within emails. Generally, the receiving host compares the message headers to your sending domain, looking for a match. If none, the DKIM record kicks in that is on your host server. Okay, too many words, but it's early and i'm still on my first cup of coffee. Good luck.

david
 
Hi David,

I don't know if I actually need SPF, DMARC, or DKIM.  However, the issue I'm facing is that I often get delays of up to 48 hours on emails sent from my meanoldteacher.com domain to gmail accounts, which many of my students have.  The delays always occur at the mx.google.com server.  I've posted on the gmail forums and one of the gmail representatives that frequents the forums has several times sent my MIME headers to support for some feedback on the issue, but they refuse to even comment.  I first tried moving my hosting to a different server within the same hosting company (doteasy.com) and then changing hosts entirely (bluehost,com), but to no avail.  It has been suggested to me that perhaps adding various authentications to my emails might help, so that's what I'm trying to do now.  I've set up SPF, DMARC, and DKIM with my host and all that remains to to sign my emails with DKIM, which is what my first posting was asking about.  If, after doing all that, I still get these delays I guess I'll just need to abandon the domain and try a new one like nastyoldteacher.com or equivalent :-)

Ray
 
Just a few links in hopes that they may have hints and information useful to you:

Gmail's bulk sender's guidelines, and Postmaster Tools
How to Improve Delivery to Gmail Inbox
How to Remove Your IP Address from Gmail’s Blacklist
Delay in email receipt due to delay in a google mx server
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
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