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https://kent.ac.uk

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
86
GRADE
B
FIX
1
REVIEW
3
PASS
5
INFO
0
Probed from Madrid, Spain
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.kent.ac.uk/
200https://kent.ac.uk/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://kent.ac.uk/ → https://www.kent.ac.uk/

Consistent

B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
89 days until leaf cert expires — 5 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

89
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
  • 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
A+
DNS Records
1 A records, 115 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 115 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 129.12.10.249
Info::
Single A record — no DNS redundancy
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
3 nameserver(s) configured
Got: ns3.ja.net, dns1.kent.ac.uk, dns0.kent.ac.uk
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: 115 ms
Got: 115 ms
A129.12.10.249
AAAA—
CNAME—
NSns3.ja.net, dns1.kent.ac.uk, dns0.kent.ac.uk
MX
0 kent-ac-uk.mail.protection.outlook.com
TXT
SPF v=spf1 ip4:129.12.21.32/29 ip4:129.12.21.80/31 ip4:129.12.21.48/30 include:spf....
docusign=d87410f9-d2c3-4824-a0b1-9cf9e117f820
QuoVadis=fbcab271-9fa6-4cf9-a9c1-9374b128e7c9
_globalsign-domain-verification=LwaCTPNxE5ke39pg0a87vQ-Go54NyElMgeJfvGvrEU
5856BC44-0881-43C1-AD3B-F08E1249C41C
rhino_accounts=02e2f629e8270e1390fa7d45be4ccfe7
adobe-idp-site-verification=ee2d623070e4059c0f901f5b5e530169eb45166d182e28564ea2...
d365mktkey=5fGiDK5jwbYytrOcSZZRe5Ncb5Pt0fHzShszDhehnCIx
_zeurximefsbhtvms2qg3rpxl64o50g9
d365mktkey=LuwK6ZPpsI1usDP9bYfxbna9rl5ZbdoQ55bfrHBEufgx
d365mktkey=LvzkLHyIuYWPdAkh4zfwLXqx4BLAhxXaLw2zcxUu4gkx
adobe-idp-site-verification=dee79e13f5e67bf904f8130d45d9652c2c62e5e208a13d11341c...
google-site-verification=ASFr4EWDtLaTyf1nf2or5gQwoAtNGsHWwcmU1Qo8V3E
d365mktkey=WsPcB2K1tsuhdK9pV86yFxvRa6ybNg5M7aKbcx6kDSox
facebook-domain-verification=iidmaepjk020orveo5npt3zopxh3ys
apple-domain-verification=LkBAtT77BslZwsH3
O55ujBmNQlwe+1HcH1pDw0gRw8ni6CJCxnideDGJKWdhZURcji414QRRN8V/s/w3wqUsBVGEy6VBakCb...
_yqgz1dp9g8qfpudujy4t32ho4m69xc9
d365mktkey=0B5S4voWzORWts7xmcgOCfegL90tIoFPlVAd9GkC79ox
docusign=96556338-0d3c-4206-98ec-f2a2c0180fa8
openai-domain-verification=dv-C2bRpYZqbdUtSsKG9kVFk9a3
logmein-verification-code=089d1fa9-7574-419d-88cc-a75d014fc47e
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 115 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
1 redirect(s), 311 ms total
PASS
1 redirect(s), 311 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://kent.ac.uk → https://www.kent.ac.uk/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect

https://kent.ac.uk

118 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.kent.ac.uk/

193 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://kent.ac.uk301118 msHTTP/1.1nginx/1.29.8
2https://www.kent.ac.uk/200193 msHTTP/1.1nginx/1.29.8

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 205 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 205 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 930 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 205 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 205 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 930 B Sitemaps referenced 1 User-agents * Blocking No — crawling allowed
# robots.txt for https://www.kent.ac.uk
# Last updated: 2025-01-07
 
# Explicit allow section

# Regular search engines
User-agent: *

Allow: /courses/
Allow: /research/
Allow: /news/
Allow: /about/
Allow: /international/
Allow: /scholarships/
Allow: /locations/
Allow: /accommodation/
Allow: /events/
Allow: /whats-on/
 
# Private
Disallow: /student/my-study/

## The following block is being commented out as requested by KBS Marketing lawyers. Ticket no to follow.
## Block AI Training Crawlers
#User-agent: GPTBot
#Disallow: /
#User-agent: ChatGPT-User
#Disallow: /
#User-agent: Google-Extended
#Disallow: /
#User-agent: CCBot
#Disallow: /
#User-agent: anthropic-ai
#Disallow: /
#User-agent: Claude-web
#Disallow: /
#User-agent: Omgilibot
#Disallow: /
#User-agent: FacebookBot
#Disallow: /
 
Disallow: /search/
Disallow: /search?q=
 
# Delay in seconds
Crawl-delay: 10
 
# Sitemaps
Sitemap: https://www.kent.ac.uk/sitemap.xml
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type Sitemap Index URLs 205 entries Valid XML Yes
Child Sitemaps:
A+
Domain Intelligence
kent.ac.uk — via No registrar listed. This domain is directly registered with Nominet., hosted on JANET Jisc Services Limited, GB
PASS
kent.ac.uk — via No registrar listed. This domain is directly registered with Nominet., hosted on JANET Jisc Services Limited, GB
Info::
Registrar: No registrar listed. This domain is directly registered with Nominet.
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: JANET Jisc Services Limited, GB
Got: AS786
Domain expiry

Unknown

SSL certificate

89 days

Issued by Let's Encrypt

Domain age

Unknown

DNSSEC

Status unknown

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

JANET Jisc Services Limited, GB

ASN AS786

129.12.10.249

Registrar

No registrar listed. This domain is directly registered with Nominet.

Unlocked 7 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Recommended actions
  • Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
Registrar No registrar listed. This domain is directly registered with Nominet.
Name Servers ns0.ja.net, ns2.ja.net, ns3.ja.net, ns4.ja.net, auth03.ns.uu.net, ns1.surfnet.nl, dns-3.dfn.de
Registrant The JNT Association
Hosting
IP Address 129.12.10.249
ASN AS786 (JANET Jisc Services Limited, GB)
Provider JANET Jisc Services Limited, GB
Data source: whois (0.9s)

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

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 46 ms TCP Connect 28 ms TLS Handshake 63 ms Server Processing 36 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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