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https://inaturalist.org

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
78
GRADE
C
FIX
1
REVIEW
6
PASS
2
INFO
0
Probed from Singapore, Singapore
301 Moved Permanently
Checks
9
2 PASS 6 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.

B
Redirect Chain
1 redirect(s), 1494 ms total
REVIEW
1 redirect(s), 1494 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://inaturalist.org → https://www.inaturalist.org/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect
Warning::
Redirect overhead: 1494 ms total
Got: 1494 ms

https://inaturalist.org

849 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.inaturalist.org/

645 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://inaturalist.org301849 msHTTP/1.1nginx
2https://www.inaturalist.org/200645 msHTTP/1.1cloudflare

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

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
Crawlability
robots.txt present, no sitemap
REVIEW
robots.txt present, no sitemap
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 2681 bytes
Info::
No sitemap.xml found
A sitemap helps search engines discover and index your pages more efficiently.
Info::
robots.txt does not reference a sitemap
Add a 'Sitemap:' directive to robots.txt so search engines can discover your sitemap.

A sitemap helps search engines discover and index your pages more efficiently.

Why this matters

No sitemap.xml — Google relies on crawl-graph discovery alone, slowing indexing of deep or fresh URLs.

Learn more

A sitemap accelerates Google's discovery of new and updated content. Most CMSes auto-generate one; static-site frameworks need a build-step plugin. Reference it from robots.txt and submit in Search Console to confirm Google can fetch it.

Source: sitemaps.org / Google Search Central

Add a 'Sitemap:' directive to robots.txt so search engines can discover your sitemap.

Why this matters

robots.txt omits Sitemap: directive — crawlers must fetch /sitemap.xml by convention; reliable but missing the explicit hint.

Source: sitemaps.org

robots.txt 200 OK
Size 2681 B Sitemaps referenced 0 User-agents Bytespider, CCBot, ia_archiver, Twitterbot, AI2Bot, Claude-Web, Diffbot, FacebookBot, ClaudeBot, Timpibot, Webzio-Extended, Amazonbot, Applebot-Extended, CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler, Google-Extended, cohere-ai, Kangaroo Bot, *, GPTBot, meta-externalagent, anthropic-ai, dotbot, Meta-ExternalAgent, omgili, ChatGLM-Spider Blocking No — crawling allowed
# As a condition of accessing this website, you agree to abide by the following
# content signals:

# (a)  If a Content-Signal = yes, you may collect content for the corresponding
#      use.
# (b)  If a Content-Signal = no, you may not collect content for the
#      corresponding use.
# (c)  If the website operator does not include a Content-Signal for a
#      corresponding use, the website operator neither grants nor restricts
#      permission via Content-Signal with respect to the corresponding use.

# The content signals and their meanings are:

# search:   building a search index and providing search results (e.g., returning
#           hyperlinks and short excerpts from your website's contents). Search does not
#           include providing AI-generated search summaries.
# ai-input: inputting content into one or more AI models (e.g., retrieval
#           augmented generation, grounding, or other real-time taking of content for
#           generative AI search answers).
# ai-train: training or fine-tuning AI models.

# ANY RESTRICTIONS EXPRESSED VIA CONTENT SIGNALS ARE EXPRESS RESERVATIONS OF
# RIGHTS UNDER ARTICLE 4 OF THE EUROPEAN UNION DIRECTIVE 2019/790 ON COPYRIGHT
# AND RELATED RIGHTS IN THE DIGITAL SINGLE MARKET.

# BEGIN Cloudflare Managed content

User-agent: *
Content-Signal: search=yes,ai-train=no
Allow: /

User-agent: Amazonbot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /

User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: meta-externalagent
Disallow: /

# END Cloudflare Managed Content

User-agent: *
Disallow: /calendar/
Disallow: /observations?
Disallow: /observations/?
Disallow: /observations.csv
Disallow: /observations.csv?
Disallow: /places/wikipedia/*
Disallow: /taxa/search
Disallow: /taxa/search?
Disallow: /*?
Disallow: /taxa/*/description$
Disallow: /taxa/*/map_layers$
Disallow: /listed_taxa/*
Disallow: /lifelists/*
Disallow: *.atom*
Disallow: *.csv*
Disallow: *.json*
Disallow: *page=*
Disallow: /*?

User-agent: ia_archiver
User-agent: Twitterbot
Disallow: 

User-agent: AI2Bot
User-agent: anthropic-ai
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
User-agent: Bytespider
User-agent: CCBot
User-agent: Claude-Web
User-agent: ClaudeBot
User-agent: cohere-ai
User-agent: Diffbot
User-agent: dotbot
User-agent: FacebookBot
User-agent: Google-Extended
User-agent: GPTBot
User-agent: Kangaroo Bot
User-agent: Meta-ExternalAgent
User-agent: omgili
User-agent: Timpibot
User-agent: Webzio-Extended
User-agent: ChatGLM-Spider
Disallow: /

sitemap.xml No sitemap found

No sitemap found

Adding a sitemap helps search engines discover your pages.

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.inaturalist.org/
200https://inaturalist.org/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://inaturalist.org/ https://www.inaturalist.org/

Consistent

B
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 851 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
REVIEW
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
207 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
160 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
325 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
851 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
851 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 207 ms TCP Connect 160 ms TLS Handshake 325 ms Server Processing 160 ms Content Transfer 0 ms
B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
215 days until leaf cert expires — 4 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

215
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
1 A records, 217 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 217 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 20.69.173.116
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.slicehost.net, ns2.slicehost.net, ns1.slicehost.net
Info::
7 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
Warning::
DNS resolution is slow (217 ms)
Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider.
Got: 217 ms
A20.69.173.116
AAAA
CNAME
NSns3.slicehost.net, ns2.slicehost.net, ns1.slicehost.net
MX
10 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
20 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
20 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
30 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM
30 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM
30 ASPMX5.GOOGLEMAIL.COM
30 ASPMX4.GOOGLEMAIL.COM
TXT
SPF v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:em3891.inaturalist.org -all
google-site-verification=flCGrmXAfNRjXdNNmDRLgbE0XHOHguuFhh1twJN6TVM
google-site-verification=k6GBIUqmCWQ2wvsoUwfCNxKEpI7wCDC4mWEHV4CmBe8
brave-ledger-verification=7ba141ed7fb3da81ce9c8024846162bd1c4fc09ae4487a6e5edda3...
google-site-verification=0uVQBRm-d9J8Jc2SIFTEUC_TTkdcnhssqMX8ral6n7w
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 217 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.

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+
Domain Intelligence
inaturalist.org — via Network Solutions, LLC, 21 years, 8 months old, hosted on Microsoft Azure
PASS
inaturalist.org — via Network Solutions, LLC, 21 years, 8 months old, hosted on Microsoft Azure
Info::
Domain registered until Nov 16, 2030 (4 years, 7 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: Network Solutions, 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: Microsoft Azure
Got: AS8075
Domain expiry

1582 days

November 16, 2030

SSL certificate

215 days

Issued by Sectigo Limited

Domain age

21 years, 8 months

Registered November 16, 2004

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

Microsoft Azure

ASN AS8075

20.69.173.116

Registrar

Network Solutions, LLC

Unlocked 3 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 Network Solutions, LLC
Created November 16, 2004 (21 years, 8 months ago)
Expires November 16, 2030 (4 years, 7 months)
Last Updated September 22, 2025
Name Servers ns1.slicehost.net, ns2.slicehost.net, ns3.slicehost.net
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 20.69.173.116
ASN AS8075 (MICROSOFT-CORP-MSN-AS-BLOCK - Microsoft Corporation, US)
Provider Microsoft Azure
Data source: rdap (1.2s)

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

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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