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https://theonion.com

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
92
GRADE
A
FIX
1
REVIEW
2
PASS
6
INFO
0
Probed from Santa Clara, United States
200 OK
Checks
9
6 PASS 2 REVIEW 1 FIX
D
CDN & Delivery
Action
No CDN detected
FIX
No CDN detected
Warning::
No CDN detected
A CDN can significantly improve load times for users around the world by caching content at edge nodes closer to them.
No CDN detected

Consider using a CDN to improve global delivery speed and reduce origin load.

C
IPv6 Readiness
Action
No IPv6 support
REVIEW
No IPv6 support
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records found
IPv6 support is increasingly important for global accessibility. About 40% of internet users have IPv6 connectivity.
No IPv6 Support
About 40% of internet users have IPv6. Consider adding AAAA records.

IPv6 support is increasingly important for global accessibility. About 40% of internet users have IPv6 connectivity.

Why this matters

No AAAA records — same impact as 'no IPv6 (AAAA) records'; IPv6-preferring clients pay extra latency falling back to IPv4.

Source: Google IPv6 stats

B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
33 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

33
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+

Recommended actions

  • Enable HSTS: Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains
  • 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+
DNS Records
1 A records, 7 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 7 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 192.0.66.48
Info::
Single A record — no DNS redundancy
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
4 nameserver(s) configured
Got: ha1.markmonitor.zone, ha2.markmonitor.zone, ha3.markmonitor.zone, ha4.markmonitor.zone
Info::
5 mail exchanger(s) configured
Info::
CAA records not checked
CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.
Info::
SPF record present in TXT
Info::
DNS resolution time: 7 ms
Got: 7 ms
A192.0.66.48
AAAA—
CNAME—
NSha1.markmonitor.zone, ha2.markmonitor.zone, ha3.markmonitor.zone, ha4.markmonitor.zone
MX
1 aspmx.l.google.com
5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com
5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
10 alt4.aspmx.l.google.com
10 alt3.aspmx.l.google.com
TXT
MS=ms39329013
MS=ms65916377
thk7046tda7d5svhj06bj0msq9
60aa88b0-451e-403c-adf9-49b1eec55ca9
apple-domain-verification=QFgtwfzFdimP4aDt
slack-domain-verification=oet7IV3H02YkOAtL7uw09V0Ehd7l1Pyxzys9TWAH
google-site-verification=9grpBfJNAWsMASvKUX-8yvrfs5AOq4OnRwwDfYIyQqw
google-site-verification=Li89hF3jky072ZFAAi4X-_1tHTcfzyoyPhqvRdOFpvc
google-site-verification=Xua_59_IKSOyb7JYEuH2nL1cu3n9lgm4Vvfdgm7FvQk
google-site-verification=Zc4PpjrJKuLmNb-XLHPj9rxmW3LUXDvsCdrETQBmADc
_globalsign-domain-verification=63GY7DdhmEwU6Yc6mPqIRV6Tlu3atl9B6izj643Qy2
_globalsign-domain-verification=PILG2L7GR-2KecCXJkC9QC-kzXA2GQir70Rw22Bv9C
SPF v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:shops.shopify.com include:_spf.salesforce...
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 7 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

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.

A+
Redirect Chain
No redirects — direct access
PASS
No redirects — direct access
Info::
No redirects — direct access
Got: https://theonion.com

https://theonion.com

14 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://theonion.com20014 msHTTP/1.1nginx
A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 67 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 67 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 1505 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 67 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 67 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 1505 B Sitemaps referenced 1 User-agents Bytespider, ChatGPT-User, DataForSeoBot, meta-externalagent, PerplexityBot, Applebot-Extended, CCBot, cohere-ai, GPTBot, *, Amazonbot, magpie-crawler, omgili, peer39_crawler, peer39_crawler/1.0, TurnitinBot, anthropic-ai, AwarioSmartBot, Diffbot, Meta-ExternalAgent, Scrapy, Claude-Web, Google-CloudVertexBot, NewsNow, news-please, Quora-Bot, ClaudeBot, FacebookBot, AwarioRssBot, FriendlyCrawler, Google-Extended, ImagesiftBot, OAI-SearchBot, omgilibot Blocking No — crawling allowed
# Disallow Rules
User-agent: Amazonbot
Disallow: /
User-agent: anthropic-ai
Disallow: /
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: AwarioRssBot
User-agent: AwarioSmartBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /
User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Claude-Web
Disallow: /
User-agent: cohere-ai
Disallow: /
User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Diffbot
Disallow: /
User-agent: FacebookBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: FriendlyCrawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: ImagesiftBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: magpie-crawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: Meta-ExternalAgent
User-agent: meta-externalagent
Disallow: /
User-agent: NewsNow
Disallow: /
User-agent: news-please
Disallow: /
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: omgili
Disallow: /
User-agent: omgilibot
Disallow: /
User-agent: peer39_crawler
User-agent: peer39_crawler/1.0
Disallow: /
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Quora-Bot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Scrapy
Disallow: /
User-agent: TurnitinBot
Disallow: /
    
# START YOAST BLOCK
# ---------------------------
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-json/
Disallow: /?rest_route=

User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

Sitemap: https://theonion.com/sitemap_index.xml
# ---------------------------
# END YOAST BLOCK
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type Sitemap Index URLs 67 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: non-www)
Info::
HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

www / non-www

301https://www.theonion.com/
200https://theonion.com/

Preferred variant: non-www

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://theonion.com/ → https://theonion.com/

Consistent

A+
Domain Intelligence
theonion.com — via MarkMonitor Inc., 31 years, 6 months old, hosted on WordPress.com (Automattic)
PASS
theonion.com — via MarkMonitor Inc., 31 years, 6 months old, hosted on WordPress.com (Automattic)
Info::
Domain registered until Mar 22, 2027 (11 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: MarkMonitor Inc.
Warning::
Registrar lock is NOT enabled
The domain can be transferred without an unlock step. Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) in your registrar's control panel to protect against unauthorized or accidental transfers.
Info::
Hosting: WordPress.com (Automattic)
Got: AS2635
Domain expiry

247 days

March 22, 2027

SSL certificate

33 days

Issued by Let's Encrypt

Domain age

31 years, 6 months

Registered March 21, 1995

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

WordPress.com (Automattic)

ASN AS2635

192.0.66.48

Registrar

MarkMonitor Inc.

Unlocked 4 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Recommended actions
  • Enable DNSSEC to protect visitors from DNS spoofing
  • Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
Registrar MarkMonitor Inc.
Created March 21, 1995 (31 years, 6 months ago)
Expires March 22, 2027 (11 months)
Last Updated October 14, 2024
Name Servers ha1.markmonitor.zone, ha2.markmonitor.zone, ha3.markmonitor.zone, ha4.markmonitor.zone
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 192.0.66.48
ASN AS2635 (AUTOMATTIC - Automattic, Inc, US)
Provider WordPress.com (Automattic)
Data source: rdap (0.2s)

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

The domain can be transferred without an unlock step. Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) in your registrar's control panel to protect against unauthorized or accidental transfers.

Why this matters

Without registrar lock, an attacker who phishes your registrar credentials can transfer the domain in minutes — total brand hijack.

Learn more ▾

Registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited, clientDeleteProhibited) requires extra verification before any transfer/update/delete. Every major registrar offers it free. Combined with 2FA on your registrar account, it's the strongest defense against domain hijacking.

Source: ICANN / domain-security best practice

A+
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 20 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
5 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
2 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
5 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
17 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
20 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 5 ms TCP Connect 2 ms TLS Handshake 5 ms Server Processing 5 ms Content Transfer 3 ms
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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