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Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
94
GRADE
A
FIX
0
REVIEW
3
PASS
6
INFO
0
Probed from New York, United Stated
200 OK
Checks
9
6 PASS 3 REVIEW
C
DNS Records
Action
1 A records, 346 ms lookup
REVIEW
1 A records, 346 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 199.232.36.144
Info::
Single A record — no DNS redundancy
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
Info::
Has 1 IPv6 (AAAA) record(s)
Got: 2a04:4e42:46::144
Warning::
CNAME record at zone apex
A CNAME at the zone apex can break MX and NS records. Use ALIAS/ANAME or A records instead.
Got: www-cdn.production.govuk.service.gov.uk
Info::
No NS records found
Info::
No MX records — email not configured via DNS
Info::
CAA records not checked
CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.
Info::
No SPF record found in TXT records
SPF helps prevent email spoofing. Add a TXT record starting with 'v=spf1'.
Warning::
DNS resolution is slow (346 ms)
Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider.
Got: 346 ms
A199.232.36.144
AAAA2a04:4e42:46::144
CNAMEwww-cdn.production.govuk.service.gov.uk
NS—
MX—
TXT—
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 346 ms

Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.

Why this matters

Single A record means a single point of failure — if that IP goes down, your site is unreachable until DNS TTL expires.

Learn more ▾

Add multiple A records for round-robin failover, or use a managed DNS provider with health-checked failover (Route 53, Cloudflare, NS1). Short TTL (60-300s) lets clients recover faster on outages.

Source: SRE practice / DNS architecture

A CNAME at the zone apex can break MX and NS records. Use ALIAS/ANAME or A records instead.

Why this matters

CNAME at the apex (example.com) breaks every other apex record (MX, TXT, NS) — DNS-protocol violation per RFC 1034.

Learn more ▾

RFC 1034 forbids CNAME alongside other records at the same name. Some DNS providers offer ALIAS / ANAME / flattened-CNAME records that work around this — use those instead. Otherwise apex-level CNAME breaks email (no MX), domain ownership verification (no TXT), and more.

Source: RFC 1034

CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.

Why this matters

Informational: CAA (Certification Authority Authorization) records weren't checked in this scan.

SPF helps prevent email spoofing. Add a TXT record starting with 'v=spf1'.

Why this matters

Without SPF, receiving servers can't validate sending IPs — your domain is easier to spoof in phishing.

Learn more ▾

SPF complements DMARC. Both should be published. SPF records list authorized sending IPs (e.g., `v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all` for Google Workspace). After publishing, verify in Google Postmaster Tools or mxtoolbox.

Source: RFC 7208 (SPF)

Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider.

Why this matters

DNS resolution is slow — anycast DNS providers (Cloudflare, Route 53) typically resolve <50ms globally.

Source: DNS performance benchmarks

B
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 1134 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
REVIEW
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
1.13 s
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
1 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
4 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
1.13 s
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
1.13 s

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 1.13 s TCP Connect 1 ms TLS Handshake 4 ms Server Processing 3 ms Content Transfer 1 ms
B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
268 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

268
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+

Recommended actions

  • Add includeSubDomains to the HSTS directive
  • Enable DNSSEC on your domain for DNS spoofing protection
  • Enable OCSP stapling on your TLS server to remove a CA roundtrip and protect user privacy
A+
Redirect Chain
No redirects — direct access
PASS
No redirects — direct access
Info::
No redirects — direct access
Got: https://www.gov.uk

https://www.gov.uk

311 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://www.gov.uk200311 msHTTP/1.1nginx
A+
IPv6 Readiness
IPv6 reachable (1 ms)
PASS
IPv6 reachable (1 ms)
Info::
IPv6 is configured and reachable at 2a04:4e42:46::144
Got: 1 ms connect
IPv6 Ready
AAAA Records 2a04:4e42:46::144 Connection Reachable (1 ms)
A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 35 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 35 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 1097 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 35 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 35 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 1097 B Sitemaps referenced 1 User-agents *, meta-externalagent, AhrefsBot, deepcrawl, MS Search 6.0 Robot Blocking No — crawling allowed
User-agent: *
Disallow: /*/print$
# Don't allow indexing of site search
Disallow: /search/all*
Sitemap: https://www.gov.uk/sitemap.xml

# The Meta-ExternalAgent crawler crawls the web for use cases such as training foundation AI models.
# It results in timeouts from Vertex that back up requests from users making genuine searches
User-agent: meta-externalagent
Disallow: /search/all*

# https://ahrefs.com/robot/ crawls the site frequently
User-agent: AhrefsBot
Crawl-delay: 10

# https://www.deepcrawl.com/bot/ makes lots of requests. Ideally we'd slow it
# down rather than blocking it but it doesn't mention whether or not it
# supports crawl-delay.
User-agent: deepcrawl
Disallow: /

# Complaints of 429 'Too many requests' seem to be coming from SharePoint servers
# (https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/3ea268ed-58a6-4166-ab40-d3f4fc55fef4)
# The robot doesn't recognise its User-Agent string, see the MS support article:
# https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3019711/the-sharepoint-server-crawler-ignores-directives-in-robots-txt
User-agent: MS Search 6.0 Robot
Disallow: /
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type Sitemap Index URLs 35 entries Valid XML Yes
Child Sitemaps:
A+
URL Variants
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
PASS
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
Info::
www/non-www redirect configured correctly (preferred: www)
Info::
HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

www / non-www

200https://www.gov.uk/
301https://gov.uk/

Preferred variant: www

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://www.gov.uk/ → https://www.gov.uk/

Consistent

A+
Domain Intelligence
www.gov.uk — via .gov.uk Registry, 13 years, 8 months old
PASS
www.gov.uk — via .gov.uk Registry, 13 years, 8 months old
Info::
Domain registered until Sep 24, 2026 (5 months remaining)
Info::
DNSSEC is not enabled
DNSSEC protects against DNS spoofing attacks. While not required, enabling DNSSEC adds an additional layer of security. Contact your DNS provider to enable it.
Info::
Registrar: .gov.uk Registry
Domain expiry

103 days

September 24, 2026

SSL certificate

268 days

Issued by GlobalSign nv-sa

Domain age

13 years, 8 months

Registered September 24, 2012

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

Unknown

2a04:4e42:46::144

Registrar

.gov.uk Registry

Lock status unknown Name servers unknown
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Recommended actions
  • Enable DNSSEC to protect visitors from DNS spoofing
Registrar .gov.uk Registry
Created September 24, 2012 (13 years, 8 months ago)
Expires September 24, 2026 (5 months)
Last Updated September 24, 2025
DNSSEC Not enabled
Registrant PLACEHOLDER
Hosting
IP Address 2a04:4e42:46::144
Data source: rdap (0.7s)

DNSSEC protects against DNS spoofing attacks. While not required, enabling DNSSEC adds an additional layer of security. Contact your DNS provider to enable it.

Why this matters

Without DNSSEC, an attacker who can poison your DNS can hijack your domain — and SSL certs alone don't stop them.

Learn more ▾

DNSSEC adds cryptographic signatures to DNS records, preventing forged responses from poisoning resolver caches. Without it, an attacker who controls the network path can redirect your domain to a malicious server before any HTTPS handshake happens. Most modern registrars (Cloudflare, Google Domains, Route 53) enable it with one toggle.

Source: ICANN / RFC 4033

A+
CDN & Delivery
Fastly (HIT)
PASS
Fastly (HIT)
Info::
Site is served via Fastly CDN
Got: x-served-by: cache-lga21970-LGA
Info::
CDN cache status: HIT
CDN Detected: Fastly
Provider Fastly Cache Status HIT Evidence x-served-by: cache-lga21970-LGA
All checks on this page are automated. Results are estimates - run targeted manual reviews when the score affects a release decision.

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