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https://www.stanford.edu

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
82
GRADE
B
FIX
2
REVIEW
1
PASS
6
INFO
0
Probed from Sao Paulo, Brazil
200 OK
Checks
9
6 PASS 1 REVIEW 2 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: 2a04:4e42:3b::645
Info::
IPv6 connection error
Got: dial tcp6 [2a04:4e42:3b::645]:443: connect: no route to host
IPv6 Misconfigured
AAAA Records 2a04:4e42:3b::645 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)

D
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
Action
11 days until leaf cert expires — 6 issues to address
FIX

Certificate validity

11
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+
Renew urgently — under 14 days remaining

Recommended actions

  • Renew certificate — 11 days remaining
  • Prefer TLS 1.3 — TLS 1.2 is acceptable but TLS 1.3 removes RSA key exchange and improves latency
  • Add includeSubDomains to the HSTS directive
  • Add the preload directive and submit to hstspreload.org once max-age + includeSubDomains are in place
  • 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
C
DNS Records
Action
1 A records, 323 ms lookup
REVIEW
1 A records, 323 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 151.101.250.133
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: 2a04:4e42:3b::645
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: pantheon-systems.map.fastly.net
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 (323 ms)
Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider.
Got: 323 ms
A151.101.250.133
AAAA2a04:4e42:3b::645
CNAMEpantheon-systems.map.fastly.net
NS
MX
TXT
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 323 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

A+
Redirect Chain
No redirects — direct access
PASS
No redirects — direct access
Info::
No redirects — direct access
Got: https://www.stanford.edu

https://www.stanford.edu

324 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://www.stanford.edu200324 msHTTP/1.1nginx
A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 5 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 5 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 117 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 5 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 5 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 117 B Sitemaps referenced 1 User-agents * Blocking No — crawling allowed
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php

Sitemap: https://www.stanford.edu/wp-sitemap.xml

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.stanford.edu/
301https://stanford.edu/

Preferred variant: www

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://www.stanford.edu/ https://www.stanford.edu/

Consistent

A+
Domain Intelligence
stanford.edu — 41 years, 1 months old
PASS
stanford.edu — 41 years, 1 months old
Info::
Domain registered until Jul 31, 2028 (2 years, 4 months remaining)
Domain expiry

750 days

July 31, 2028

SSL certificate

11 days

Issued by Certainly

Domain age

41 years, 1 months

Registered October 4, 1985

DNSSEC

Status unknown

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

Unknown

2607:f6d0:0:925a::ab43:d7c8

Registrar

Registrar unknown

Lock status unknown 6 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Recommended actions
  • Renew the TLS certificate or verify auto-renewal is working
Registrar
Created October 4, 1985 (41 years, 1 months ago)
Expires July 31, 2028 (2 years, 4 months)
Last Updated January 5, 2026
Name Servers avallone.stanford.edu, atalante.stanford.edu, ns6.dnsmadeeasy.com, argus.stanford.edu, ns7.dnsmadeeasy.com, ns5.dnsmadeeasy.com
Registrant Stanford University
Hosting
IP Address 2607:f6d0:0:925a::ab43:d7c8
Data source: whois (2.0s)
A+
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 207 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
188 ms
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.
205 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
207 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 188 ms TCP Connect 1 ms TLS Handshake 4 ms Server Processing 12 ms Content Transfer 2 ms
A+
CDN & Delivery
Fastly (HIT, HIT, MISS)
PASS
Fastly (HIT, HIT, MISS)
Info::
Site is served via Fastly CDN
Got: x-served-by: cache-chi-kigq8000175-CHI, cache-gru-sbsp2090031-GRU, cache-gru-sbsp2090029-GRU
Info::
CDN cache status: HIT, HIT, MISS
CDN Detected: Fastly
Provider Fastly Cache Status HIT, HIT, MISS Evidence x-served-by: cache-chi-kigq8000175-CHI, cache-gru-sbsp2090031-GRU, cache-gru-sbsp2090029-GRU
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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