Verify your Fasthosts domain to improve your Buzzshot email deliverability

Does Fasthosts manage your domain's DNS?

Buzzshot sends emails to your players for you, such as your "Thanks for playing" emails. Verifying your domain tells other email servers that Buzzshot may send email for you, so fewer of those emails end up in spam.

If Buzzshot shows "uses Fasthosts for DNS" on your domain's page, follow the steps below.

Step 1. Find your records in Buzzshot

Log in to your Buzzshot Admin account. Go to Settings → Emails → Verify Sending Domains and click Setup next to your domain. You will see three records: DKIM (a TXT record), Return-Path (a CNAME record) and DMARC (a TXT record). Steps 2 and 3 cover the first two, and Step 4 covers DMARC. Click the copy button next to a value to copy it.

Step 2. Open your DNS records in Fasthosts

Log in to the Fasthosts control panel. Go to Domain Names and click your domain, then click Configure Advanced DNS. You will see your DNS records grouped by type.

In the Host Name field, enter only the part of the hostname before your domain. Fasthosts adds your domain for you. In Buzzshot, your domain is the greyed-out part of the hostname.

Add the DKIM record

  1. In the TXT records section, click the button to add a TXT record.
  2. In Host Name, enter the DKIM hostname from Buzzshot without your domain, for example 20240325pm._domainkey.
  3. In Value, paste the DKIM text value from Buzzshot.
  4. Save the record.

Add the Return-Path record

  1. In the CNAME records section, click the button to add a CNAME record.
  2. In Host Name, enter buzzbounces.
  3. In Points To, enter pm.mtasv.net.
  4. Save the record.

Fasthosts does not allow a host name or value that starts or ends with a dot, so enter pm.mtasv.net with no dot at the end.

Step 3. Verify in Buzzshot

Go back to your domain's page in Buzzshot and click Re-Verify. Once DKIM and Return-Path show a green tick, go on to Step 4. Status on the Verify Sending Domains page shows Missing DMARC until you have.

Step 4. Add a DMARC record

DMARC tells mail providers that email from your domain is genuine. Your domain needs a DMARC record: Microsoft requires one, so without it emails to Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and MSN addresses may not be delivered. Set up DMARC explains why. The DMARC row on your domain's page in Buzzshot shows what we found, with a button to copy the value you need.

First, check whether it is already there

A domain can have only one DMARC record, and a second one could make both stop working. Before you add anything, open your DNS records as you did in Step 2 and look through the list for a TXT record named _dmarc.

  • You find one: do not add another. Click Re-Verify in Buzzshot. If the DMARC row shows Verified, you are finished. If it shows Invalid, follow the warning on the page, or see Fix a record that does not work.
  • You do not find one: add it as shown below.

Add the DMARC record

  1. In the TXT records section, click the button to add a TXT record.
  2. In Host Name, enter _dmarc.
  3. In Value, enter v=DMARC1; p=none;
  4. Save the record.

Then go to your domain's page in Buzzshot and click Re-Verify. The DMARC row now shows a green tick. On the Verify Sending Domains page, Status shows Verified and DMARC policy shows None with a green tick. None is the policy you just set, so you are done.

Troubleshooting

  • Fasthosts says DNS changes can take up to 72 hours to show up, though they are often much quicker. Click Re-Verify again later if a record has not verified yet.
  • If a record will not verify, open it in Fasthosts and check the Host Name holds only the part before your domain, with no dot at the start or end.
  • If you can't find Configure Advanced DNS, your domain's DNS may be managed from a different Fasthosts account or by another company.
  • If the DMARC row still shows Missing after you click Re-Verify, check that the record's type is TXT and its name is _dmarc, then try again later.
  • If it shows Invalid, the warning below it says what is wrong with the record.
  • If you still can't get things to verify, book a call with the Buzzshot team and we'll go through it with you.

Any questions or feedback are gratefully received. Please use the message button on the bottom right of the screen or the "Help & Support" option within the app. Or feel free to email or call.