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Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
87
GRADE
B
FIX
1
REVIEW
3
PASS
5
INFO
0
Probed from Santa Clara, United States
301 Moved Permanently
Checks
9
5 PASS 3 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
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.smithsonianmag.com/
200https://smithsonianmag.com/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://smithsonianmag.com/ → https://smithsonianmag.com:443/

Consistent

B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
255 days until leaf cert expires — 4 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

255
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+

Recommended actions

  • Prefer TLS 1.3 — TLS 1.2 is acceptable but TLS 1.3 removes RSA key exchange and improves latency
  • 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, 34 ms lookup
PASS
3 A records, 34 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 3 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 100.25.195.230, 34.193.40.211, 3.221.39.234
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
4 nameserver(s) configured
Got: ns-1149.awsdns-15.org, ns-1878.awsdns-42.co.uk, ns-472.awsdns-59.com, ns-726.awsdns-26.net
Info::
1 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: 34 ms
Got: 34 ms
A100.25.195.230, 34.193.40.211, 3.221.39.234
AAAA—
CNAME—
NSns-1149.awsdns-15.org, ns-1878.awsdns-42.co.uk, ns-472.awsdns-59.com, ns-726.awsdns-26.net
MX
0 web243.dnchosting.com
TXT
brave-ledger-verification=11a9cac139ab1bcfd98cc162e73dabc93c91f4b73ced85548b19d4...
d900ss2nyp97pk2fn4ptmhj98ljx416m
google-site-verification=lh17VLiQGI0HcaDwAuMAu0L0QozE5yp5EcCv7aMHXmA
subscribe.smithsonianmag.com=718sbh8817q3c61pky6xtbgmbtl75rw6
SPF v=spf1 include:smithsonian-spf.inetz.com -all
yahoo-verification-key=yaWfzJbVISCWCI6AAmw+hwOajsvFvOIO+JWbpyA20jE=
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 34 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), 342 ms total
PASS
1 redirect(s), 342 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://smithsonianmag.com → https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect

https://smithsonianmag.com

298 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/

44 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://smithsonianmag.com301298 msHTTP/1.1awselb/2.0
2https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/20044 msHTTP/1.1cloudflare

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 393 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 393 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 407 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 393 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 393 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 407 B Sitemaps referenced 1 User-agents *, AmazonAdBot Blocking No — crawling allowed
User-agent: *
Disallow: /accounts/*
Disallow: /museumdays/accounts/
Disallow: /accounts/login/
Disallow: /search?
Disallow: /rss?
Disallow: /search?q=
Disallow: /*?ms=
Disallow: /*?no-cache=
Disallow: /article/preview/*/
Disallow: /blogs/blogpost/preview/*
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /email/
Disallow: /membership/

User-agent: AmazonAdBot
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sitemap.xml
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type Sitemap Index URLs 393 entries Valid XML Yes
Child Sitemaps:
A+
Domain Intelligence
smithsonianmag.com — via DNC Holdings, Inc., 29 years, 1 months old, hosted on AWS
PASS
smithsonianmag.com — via DNC Holdings, Inc., 29 years, 1 months old, hosted on AWS
Info::
Domain registered until Aug 7, 2032 (6 years, 4 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: DNC Holdings, 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: AWS
Got: AS14618
Domain expiry

2244 days

August 7, 2032

SSL certificate

255 days

Issued by Amazon

Domain age

29 years, 1 months

Registered August 8, 1997

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

AWS

ASN AS14618

34.193.40.211

Registrar

DNC Holdings, 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 DNC Holdings, Inc.
Created August 8, 1997 (29 years, 1 months ago)
Expires August 7, 2032 (6 years, 4 months)
Last Updated August 24, 2022
Name Servers ns-1149.awsdns-15.org, ns-1878.awsdns-42.co.uk, ns-472.awsdns-59.com, ns-726.awsdns-26.net
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 34.193.40.211
ASN AS14618 (AMAZON-AES - Amazon.com, Inc., US)
Provider AWS
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 287 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
17 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
67 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
136 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
287 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
287 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 17 ms TCP Connect 67 ms TLS Handshake 136 ms Server Processing 67 ms Content Transfer 0 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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