Infrastructure - https://www.bbc.co.uk BeaverCheck Audit

B

DNS Records

4 A records, 24 ms lookup

REVIEW

4 A records, 24 ms lookup

Resolves to 4 IPv4 address(es)

Got: 151.101.192.81, 151.101.0.81, 151.101.64.81, 151.101.128.81

No IPv6 (AAAA) records

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.bbc.co.uk.pri.bbc.co.uk

No NS records found

No MX records — email not configured via DNS

CAA records not checked

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

No SPF record found in TXT records

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

DNS resolution time: 24 ms

Got: 24 ms

A	151.101.192.81, 151.101.0.81, 151.101.64.81, 151.101.128.81
AAAA	—
CNAME	www.bbc.co.uk.pri.bbc.co.uk
NS	—
MX	—
TXT	—
CAA	Lookup not available with standard resolver

Resolved in 24 ms

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)

C

IPv6 Readiness

Action

No IPv6 support

REVIEW

No IPv6 support

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

110 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to address

REVIEW

Certificate validity

110

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

Got: https://www.bbc.co.uk

https://www.bbc.co.uk

7 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#	URL	Status	Time	Protocol	Server
1	https://www.bbc.co.uk	200	7 ms	HTTP/1.1	BBC-GTM

A+

Crawlability

robots.txt present, sitemap with 6 URLs

PASS

robots.txt present, sitemap with 6 URLs

robots.txt is present

Got: 4470 bytes

sitemap.xml is present

sitemap.xml is valid XML

sitemap.xml contains 6 entries

Sitemap index with 6 child sitemaps

robots.txt references sitemap

robots.txt 200 OK

Size 4470 B Sitemaps referenced 13 User-agents TurnitinBot, Applebot-Extended, OAI-SearchBot, YandexAdditional, CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler, ProRataInc, Amzn-SearchBot, CCBot, Perplexity-User, Claude-Web, cohere-ai, Scrapy, GPTBot, AhrefsBot, Amzn-User, omgili, anthropic-ai, meta-externalagent, YandexAdditionalBot, *, Amazonbot, omgilibot, PetalBot, Google-Extended, Google-CloudVertexBot, magpie-crawler, ClaudeBot, Bytespider, PerplexityBot, ChatGPT-User Blocking No — crawling allowed


# version: a28d9b8cc160dae99c5da44b61f9fb6a0c3a520e
# The BBC's Terms of Use: https://www.bbc.co.uk/terms
# - Explain the rules for using our services
# - Tell you what you can do with our content
#
# In short: Please use our site like a human, not a robot.
# That means:
# - No scraping, crawling, or systematic extraction of content 
# - No use of BBC content for training or fine-tuning AI models, including large language models (LLMs)
# - No retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI-powered search, agentic AI or grounding using BBC content
# - No creating datasets from BBC content
# - No text and data mining (TDM) under Article 4 of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market
# - No using BBC content to create summaries for your own use
# - No business use without permission (details: https://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/terms/can-i-use-bbc-content-for-my-business/)
# - The BBC reserves all rights in its content and expressly opts out of any statutory exceptions in any jurisdiction for text and data mining, as permitted by law
 
# TL;DR: Browse, read, watch, enjoy - like a human.
#

# HTTPS www.bbc.co.uk

User-agent: *
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sitemaps/https-index-uk-archive.xml
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sitemaps/https-index-uk-news.xml
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/sitemap/sitemapindex.xml
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/sitemap/sitemapindex.xml
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sitemaps/https-index-uk-archive_video.xml
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sitemaps/https-index-uk-video.xml
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sitemaps/sitemap-uk-ws-topics.xml
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sitemaps/sitemap-uk-topics.xml
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/sitemap/sitemapindex.xml

Disallow: /asset/
Disallow: /bitesize/search$
Disallow: /bitesize/search/
Disallow: /bitesize/search?
Disallow: /cbbc/search$
Disallow: /cbbc/search/
Disallow: /cbbc/search?
Disallow: /cbeebies/search$
Disallow: /cbeebies/search/
Disallow: /cbeebies/search?
Disallow: /chwilio/
Disallow: /chwilio$
Disallow: /chwilio?
Disallow: /iplayer/bigscreen/
Disallow: /iplayer/cbbc/episodes/
Disallow: /iplayer/cbbc/search
Disallow: /iplayer/cbeebies/episodes/
Disallow: /iplayer/cbeebies/search
Disallow: /iplayer/search
Disallow: /indepthtoolkit/smallprox$
Disallow: /indepthtoolkit/smallprox/
Disallow: /moderation/reports/
Disallow: /modules/musicnav/language/
Disallow: /news/0
Disallow: /radio/aod/
Disallow: /radio/aod$
Disallow: /radio/imda
Disallow: /radio/player/
Disallow: /radio/player$
Disallow: /search/
Disallow: /search$
Disallow: /search?
Disallow: /sport/alpha/
Disallow: /sounds/player/
Disallow: /sounds/player$
Disallow: /ugc$
Disallow: /ugc/
Disallow: /ugcsupport$
Disallow: /ugcsupport/
Disallow: /userinfo/
Disallow: /userinfo
Disallow: /food/favourites
Disallow: /food/menus/*/shopping-list
Disallow: /food/recipes/*/shopping-list
Disallow: /food/search*?*
Disallow: /sounds/search$
Disallow: /sounds/search/
Disallow: /sounds/search?
Disallow: /ws/includes
Disallow: /rd/search$
Disallow: /rd/search/
Disallow: /rd/search?
Disallow: /things/search$
Disallow: /things/search/
Disallow: /things/search?

User-agent: Amazonbot
Disallow: /

User-agent: magpie-crawler
Disallow: /

User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /

User-Agent: omgili
Disallow: /
 
User-Agent: omgilibot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /
 
User-agent: Claude-Web
Disallow: /
 
User-agent: anthropic-ai
Disallow: /
 
User-agent: cohere-ai
Disallow: /

User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /

User-agent: PetalBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Scrapy
Disallow: /

User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

User-Agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Perplexity-User
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: meta-externalagent
Disallow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: YandexAdditional
Disallow: /

User-agent: YandexAdditionalBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: TurnitinBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Amzn-User
Disallow: /

User-agent: ProRataInc
Disallow: /

User-agent: CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler
Disallow: /

User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /

sitemap.xml 200 OK

Type Sitemap Index URLs 6 entries Valid XML Yes

Child Sitemaps:

A

URL Variants

www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS

PASS

www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS

www/non-www redirect configured correctly (preferred: www)

HTTP→HTTPS redirect uses 302 instead of 301

Got: 302 temporary redirect Expected: 301 permanent redirect

www / non-www

200https://www.bbc.co.uk/

301https://bbc.co.uk/

Preferred variant: www

HTTP → HTTPS

302http://www.bbc.co.uk/ → https://www.bbc.co.uk/

Use 301 (permanent) instead of 302 (temporary)

A+

Domain Intelligence

bbc.co.uk — via British Broadcasting Corporation [Tag = BBC]

PASS

bbc.co.uk — via British Broadcasting Corporation [Tag = BBC]

Domain registered until Dec 13, 2034 (8 years, 9 months remaining)

Registrar: British Broadcasting Corporation [Tag = BBC]

Domain expiry

3040 days

December 13, 2034

SSL certificate

110 days

Issued by GlobalSign nv-sa

Domain age

Unknown

DNSSEC

Status unknown

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

Unknown

2a04:4e42::81

Registrar

British Broadcasting Corporation [Tag = BBC]

Lock status unknown Name servers unknown

Expiry timeline

Today

+1 year

Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)

Registrar British Broadcasting Corporation [Tag = BBC]

Expires December 13, 2034 (8 years, 9 months)

Last Updated October 29, 2025

Hosting

IP Address 2a04:4e42::81

Data source: whois (1.1s)

A+

HTTP Probe Timing

Total 84 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown

PASS

DNS Lookup

52 ms

TCP Connect

0 ms

TLS Handshake

3 ms

Time to First Byte

82 ms

Total Time

84 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 52 ms TCP Connect 0 ms TLS Handshake 3 ms Server Processing 28 ms Content Transfer 2 ms

A+

CDN & Delivery

Fastly (HIT)

PASS

Fastly (HIT)

Site is served via Fastly CDN

Got: x-served-by: cache-toj-leto2350078-TOJ

CDN cache status: HIT

CDN Detected: Fastly

Provider Fastly Cache Status HIT Evidence x-served-by: cache-toj-leto2350078-TOJ