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https://rawstory.com

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
82
GRADE
B
FIX
1
REVIEW
2
PASS
6
INFO
0
Probed from Santa Clara, United States
301 Moved Permanently
Checks
9
6 PASS 2 REVIEW 1 FIX
F
IPv6 Readiness
Action
IPv6 records exist but unreachable
FIX
IPv6 records exist but unreachable
Warning::
IPv6 DNS records exist but server is not reachable
Having AAAA records but an unreachable server is worse than no AAAA — clients may experience delays before falling back to IPv4.
Got: 2606:4700:20::681a:823, 2606:4700:20::ac43:486b, 2606:4700:20::681a:923
Info::
IPv6 connection error
Got: dial tcp6 [2606:4700:20::681a:823]:443: connect: network is unreachable
IPv6 Misconfigured
AAAA Records 2606:4700:20::681a:823, 2606:4700:20::ac43:486b, 2606:4700:20::681a:923 Connection UNREACHABLE

Having AAAA records but an unreachable server is worse than no AAAA — clients may experience delays before falling back to IPv4.

Why this matters

Advertising IPv6 (AAAA records) without a reachable server means IPv6-preferring clients silently fail every connection.

Learn more

Modern browsers prefer IPv6 if AAAA exists (Happy Eyeballs algorithm). If the IPv6 server isn't reachable, browsers fall back to IPv4 — but with seconds of added latency per request. Either fix IPv6 reachability or remove the AAAA records.

Source: RFC 8305 (Happy Eyeballs)

B
URL Variants
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
REVIEW
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
Critical::
Both www and non-www versions serve content
Got: Both variants return 200 Expected: One variant 301-redirects to the other
Info::
HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

www / non-www

200https://www.rawstory.com/
200https://rawstory.com/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://rawstory.com/ https://rawstory.com/

Consistent

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

Certificate validity

44
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
3 A records, 7 ms lookup
PASS
3 A records, 7 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 3 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 104.26.9.35, 172.67.72.107, 104.26.8.35
Info::
Has 3 IPv6 (AAAA) record(s)
Got: 2606:4700:20::681a:823, 2606:4700:20::ac43:486b, 2606:4700:20::681a:923
Info::
2 nameserver(s) configured
Got: elma.ns.cloudflare.com, kurt.ns.cloudflare.com
Info::
8 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
A104.26.9.35, 172.67.72.107, 104.26.8.35
AAAA2606:4700:20::681a:823, 2606:4700:20::ac43:486b, 2606:4700:20::681a:923
CNAME
NSelma.ns.cloudflare.com, kurt.ns.cloudflare.com
MX
1 aspmx.l.google.com
5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com
10 alt4.aspmx.l.google.com
10 alt3.aspmx.l.google.com
20 aspmx5.googlemail.com
20 aspmx4.googlemail.com
20 aspmx3.googlemail.com
TXT
MS=ms92468224
_globalsign-domain-verification=FyfcGBvIZdT29gA-QgJAwLibO_ve-07YTFB8y434O-
_globalsign-domain-verification=lRbwWx9lINjyI2NyniunZN3zAE1kBtV4hIjd52WmFb
ahrefs-site-verification_20cf418ecd631d19a54bbeedf2f21132c31fbf2d4653fe480343844...
atlassian-domain-verification=pcXEbJL/T2aQNVAYOn6JXWogRd5e61c7juID59bCaa8eKTw0jG...
google-site-verification=bbpf8hlpxm5_UQev12rDgsvV9Hs5pBJIwXUSv2UKGFo
google-site-verification=yhVmRXl20HGayZoKcjS1bFukkqpDG3Z54diyjfHF6o0
SPF v=spf1 include:spf.mandrillapp.com ?all
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 7 ms

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
1 redirect(s), 389 ms total
PASS
1 redirect(s), 389 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://rawstory.com → https://www.rawstory.com/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect

https://rawstory.com

301 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.rawstory.com/

88 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://rawstory.com301301 msHTTP/1.1cloudflare
2https://www.rawstory.com/20088 msHTTP/1.1nginx

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 1453 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 1453 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 543 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 1453 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 1453 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 543 B Sitemaps referenced 5 User-agents ias_crawler, *, CCBot, GPTBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot Blocking No — crawling allowed
User-agent: *
Disallow: /core/*
Disallow: /r/*
Disallow: /mnt/*
Allow: /r/kappa/api/*

User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

User-Agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ias_crawler
Disallow: /

Sitemap: https://www.rawstory.com/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.rawstory.com/sitemap_video.xml
Sitemap: https://www.rawstory.com/sitemap_sections.xml
Sitemap: https://www.rawstory.com/sitemap_tags.xml
Sitemap: https://www.rawstory.com/r/kappa/api/v1/reader/news_sitemap.xml
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type Sitemap Index URLs 1453 entries Valid XML Yes
Child Sitemaps:
A+
Domain Intelligence
rawstory.com — via GoDaddy.com, LLC, 22 years, 6 months old, hosted on Cloudflare
PASS
rawstory.com — via GoDaddy.com, LLC, 22 years, 6 months old, hosted on Cloudflare
Info::
Domain registered until Jan 29, 2031 (4 years, 10 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: GoDaddy.com, LLC
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: Cloudflare
Got: AS13335
Domain expiry

1690 days

January 29, 2031

SSL certificate

44 days

Issued by Google Trust Services

Domain age

22 years, 6 months

Registered January 29, 2004

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

Cloudflare

ASN AS13335

104.26.9.35

Registrar

GoDaddy.com, LLC

Unlocked 2 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 GoDaddy.com, LLC
Created January 29, 2004 (22 years, 6 months ago)
Expires January 29, 2031 (4 years, 10 months)
Last Updated January 29, 2026
Name Servers elma.ns.cloudflare.com, kurt.ns.cloudflare.com
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 104.26.9.35
ASN AS13335 (CLOUDFLARENET - Cloudflare, Inc., US)
Provider Cloudflare
Data source: rdap (0.1s)

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 308 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
6 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
3 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
9 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
309 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
309 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 6 ms TCP Connect 3 ms TLS Handshake 9 ms Server Processing 290 ms Content Transfer 0 ms
A
CDN & Delivery
Cloudflare (DYNAMIC)
PASS
Cloudflare (DYNAMIC)
Info::
Site is served via Cloudflare CDN (edge: SJC)
Got: cf-ray: 9f0797bbdd6f4705-SJC
Info::
CDN cache status: DYNAMIC
CDN Detected: Cloudflare
Provider Cloudflare Cache Status DYNAMIC Evidence cf-ray: 9f0797bbdd6f4705-SJC
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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