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Adding DKIM to your Netigate account

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    DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) lets an email sender digitally sign an email with a secret key. When the email is received the receiving party can use a publicly available key to validate the authenticity of the sender. This will let the Netigate email server sign all emails as if they were sent from your mail servers, allowing any receiver to validate that the emails are not spam.

    The growth of the Internet has caused email systems to grow increasingly complex, with spam, phishing and forgery attacks plaguing users globally. Emails are getting stuck in spam filters! Unfortunately, Netigate survey invitations sent via email are not an exception.

    Activate and set up DKIM in Netigate

    If your organisation supports DKIM you can contact your Account Manager at Netigate and have them enable the DKIM functionality for your Netigate account.

    Once DKIM is activated you can access the setup in the Account Settings.

    Adding a DKIM key

    In order to add a DKIM key you will need to get help from your IT department. They need to generate a key for you, together with information about what domain and DNS identifier should be used. Only one key will be actively used at a time but you can add and replace the old one with a new key whenever you want.

    Domain Name: The domain name that your organisation is using as <yourdomain.com>

    DNS Identifier: DNS Identifier points to the DNS TXT record that holds the public domain key. You might have it in the format:
    <selector._yourdomainkey.yourdomain.com>. Only add <selector>.

    Insert DKIM Key: Insert the full text that forms your key. It normally contains some dashes and text specifying what kind of key it is. Paste the entire text in the field.

    Start Date: The date from which the key should be active.

    Valid Until: The date when the key should no longer be used. It is advisable to complete this field if you plan to rotate your organisation’s key with some frequency.

    How do I generate a DKIM key?

    There are multiple ways to generate DKIM keys. It can be done directly from your email system. For safety reasons, we recommend you do it via your own systems and use that information in your Netigate account but if you are unable to do it from your systems you can use a DKIM-key generator.

    How to generate DKIM keys with OpenSSL: https://www.mailhardener.com/kb/how-to-create-a-dkim-record-with-openssl

    EasyDMARC DKIM Generator: https://easydmarc.com/tools/dkim-record-generator

    How to generate DKIM keys from DKIMCore

    First, you need to enter the domain name that your organisation is using as <yourdomain.com>. When entered you press Generate and wait for the information to be processed by the page.

    When the page is ready you will see information about a Private key and a Public key. You will need both to set up DKIM.

    Follow these steps to set up DKIM:

    1. You need to copy the public key and publish it in your domains DNS.
    2. Enter the DKIM settings in you Netigate account and insert the domain name that your organisation is using as <yourdomain.com>.
    3. Copy the DNS identifier for the public key and add it to your DKIM settings in your Netigate account. Example: xxxxxxxxxx.domainname
    4. Copy the Private key and insert it into the DKIM settings in Netigate.
    5. Insert the date from which the key should be active (Start date) and the date when the key should no longer be used (Valid until). It is advisable to complete this field if you plan to rotate your organisation’s key with some frequency.
    6. Save the settings.

    When the settings have been saved to Netigate you need to go back to DKIMCore and click the button Delete this page to make sure the information is removed and will not be accessible by anyone.