Email allowlist guide for IT departments – Dr Frost Learning

To ensure reliable email delivery from Dr Frost Learning to your school users, IT administrators should add our email infrastructure to allowlists and configure email security systems appropriately. This ensures that students and staff reliably receive account verification, password reset, and notification emails.

Note for UK schools: If your school is part of a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or has Local Authority managed IT services, these configuration changes may need to be implemented at trust or LA level rather than by your school's IT team.

1. Essential email configuration

Primary Sending Details

To ensure reliable delivery of all emails from Dr Frost Learning, add the following addresses to your allowlist:

Email Type	Email Address
System/automated emails (password resets, account activations)	noreply@drfrost.org
Support emails (messages from our support team)	support@drfrost.org, help@drfrost.org

Note: To ensure users receive both automated account emails and messages from our support team, please include all Dr Frost email addresses in your allowlist.

Authentication

Our emails are authenticated using:

DKIM – Domain Keys Identified Mail
SPF – Sender Policy Framework records

2. Common Email Security Systems

Schools often use additional email security solutions which may require separate allowlisting configuration beyond the main email server, for example:

Google Workspace for Education security policies
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Cloud email security platforms such as Clearswift, Mimecast, Proofpoint, or others

External email warnings: Some schools add banners to external emails. Our automated emails are legitimate system notifications - consider exempting Dr Frost domains from these warnings.

3. Testing and Verification

After implementing allowlisting:

Test delivery: Request password resets and account verification emails with a few accounts to ensure emails are received correctly across your user base.
Check email headers to confirm DKIM/SPF verification is passing.
Monitor email logs for any rejected or quarantined Dr Frost messages.

4. Troubleshooting Delivery Issues

Check for these common blockers:

Rate limiting - Automated emails may be temporarily throttled.
Content filtering - Links in emails can trigger security policies.
Domain reputation - Ensure drfrost.org is not on internal blocklists.
Attachment policies - Some emails may contain PDF attachments.
Student email account restrictions - Check account-level policies if students can't receive external emails.
Email content modification – We send plain text emails to avoid delivery issues. If users report that email links aren't working, check whether your email security solution is modifying message content.

Provider-specific notes:

Google Workspace for Education: Check both Google Admin Console and third-party security add-ons.
Microsoft 365 Education: Verify settings in Exchange Admin Center and Microsoft Defender.
On-premises Exchange: Check transport rules and connection filters.

Recommended testing:

Multiple user accounts across different year groups.
Both password resets and account verification emails.
Different times of day to check for time-based restrictions.

5. Additional Support

If issues persist after implementing these configurations contact our technical support with:

Your school domain name
Email server logs showing rejected messages
Details of your current email security setup
Any error messages or bounce-back emails

You can reach us via email at support@drfrost.org or submit a support request form.

For user-facing troubleshooting, see our "I’m not receiving emails from Dr Frost” article.