Confused about enhancing existing Google SPF to permit server-sent emails also

Question

I'm using Google Apps for my domains email, and have the Google suggested SPF set:

"v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all"

This works as expected. In certain cases though, my web app sends emails to users (exim4) also. The problem I'm having is that when the server sends emails, the SPF soft fails:

Received-SPF: softfail (google.com: domain of transitioning xxx@xxx.com does not designate 11.11.111.11 as permitted sender) client-ip=11.11.111.11;

I'm confused how I enhance my above SPF to permit my domains IP to send emails also. I'm not sure if I need to add to the above SPF, or create a second one.

Any help would be appreciated, Thanks

Answer 1

The ~all tells SPF systems that only the 'google.com' systems are permitted to send email. You need to either replace the ~all part with ?all (which means other systems not explicitly listed in the SPF record are still permitted to send), or modify the SPF record so that it includes the IP address of your web app.

I think it would look something like:

v=spf1 ip:11.11.111.11 include:_spf.google.com ~all

However you can probably find a web page which can help you figure it out yourself: for example, there is http://old.openspf.org/wizard.html