I've looked at a bazillion references to setting up SPF records and still can't seem to get them correct. For my domain siskinsoftware.com I have a TXT record:
v=spf1 mx include:_spf.google.com -all

When I do a test email to spf-test@openspf.org I get:

I have a catchall on google apps to david.
The HELO test seems to be failing. This is happening in real-world situation since I can not send mail to particular email addresses with following error:
The error that the other server returned was:


I am able to send to that address from non-google apps account. I am also able to send from the google apps account to other emails at different hosts (most likely because of less strict SPF checks or google.com exception).

What do I need to change to get that HELO test to pass which I assume is what is preventing my email from being accepted at certain mail servers.

Thank you.

I don't think your problem is SPF related. Result="none" should be as good as a pass, and many many senders (apparently including google) don't implement SPF records on their HELO.

You are correct it was not an SPF issue. It turns out the problem was that the domain name server for the domain I was attempting to send email to never updated the DNS records for the domain I was emailing from even though the DNS changes had been done 7 days ago. So it did not have the correct MX records for the domain I was sending from and appears to be why that mail server was returning 550 errors.

I had tested using the domain at that server before switching to linode so it somehow kept its own private copy of DNS entry for that domain, which pointed a MX record to that server, hence the user not found response. So doing a DIG on that domain showed the correct information UNLESS you looked up my domain on the DNS for the domain that I was attempting to send mail to.