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https://bu.edu

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
77
GRADE
C
FIX
2
REVIEW
3
PASS
4
INFO
0
Probed from Amsterdam, Netherlands
301 Moved Permanently
Checks
9
4 PASS 3 REVIEW 2 FIX
D
URL Variants
Action
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
FIX
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
Critical::
HTTP version does not redirect to HTTPS
Got: HTTP 301 Expected: 301 redirect to HTTPS

www / non-www

200https://www.bu.edu/
200https://bu.edu/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://bu.edu/ → http://www.bu.edu/

HTTP version does not redirect to HTTPS

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
Crawlability
robots.txt present, no sitemap
REVIEW
robots.txt present, no sitemap
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 5288 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 5288 B Sitemaps referenced 0 User-agents 008, Netsparker, *, LinkLint, W3C-checklink, gsa-crawler Blocking No — crawling allowed
# Directions for robots.  See this URL:
# http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/norobots.html
# for a description of the file format.
# 2008-08-21
#####
# Here is where we override the default action

## Due to a bug in linklint, must first specify a disallow in order for 
## for all other directories to be allowed. Feel free to add other
## disallows below the first disallow line.

User-agent: LinkLint
Disallow: /workaroundForLinkLintRandomDirForConfig/ 

#####
# Allow W3C link Validator for /dev/ and /nisdev/
# skipping other dynamic content or private areas
# 2004-08-27 gaudette
#
User-agent: W3C-checklink
Disallow: /cms/
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /htbin/
Disallow: /htbin.ph/
Disallow: /BUbin/
Disallow: /bubin/
Disallow: /testing/
Disallow: /TESTING/
Disallow: /IT/SoftwareDist/
Disallow: /it/SoftwareDist/
Disallow: /software/
Disallow: /SOFTWARE/
Disallow: /IT/new/
Disallow: /it/new/
Disallow: /nis/
Disallow: /nishd/
Disallow: /library/working/
Disallow: /library/WORKING/
Disallow: /reports/
Disallow: /bulletins/work/
Disallow: /admissions/test/
Disallow: /cas/oldsite/
Disallow: /MPA/
Disallow: /finaid/test/
Disallow: /naitest/
Disallow: /newswire/
Disallow: /practice/
Disallow: /providers/
Disallow: /stats/
Disallow: /usc/test/
Disallow: /webcentral/output/
Disallow: /webmail/
Disallow: /alumni/portfolio/
Disallow: /dev/

#####
# default action - currently it allows access to most of the site
# skipping dynamic content or private areas
#
User-agent: gsa-crawler
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /cms/
Disallow: /htbin/
Disallow: /htbin.ph/
Disallow: /BUbin/
Disallow: /bubin/
Disallow: /testing/
Disallow: /TESTING/
Disallow: /IT/SoftwareDist/
Disallow: /it/SoftwareDist/
Disallow: /software/
Disallow: /SOFTWARE/
Disallow: /IT/new/
Disallow: /it/new/
Disallow: /library/working/
Disallow: /library/WORKING/
Disallow: /reports/
Disallow: /nisdev/
Disallow: /bulletins/work/
Disallow: /admissions/test/
Disallow: /cas/oldsite/
Disallow: /MPA/
Disallow: /finaid/test/
Disallow: /naitest/
Disallow: /newswire/
Disallow: /practice/
Disallow: /providers/
Disallow: /stats/
Disallow: /usc/test/
Disallow: /webcentral/output/
Disallow: /webmail/
Disallow: /alumni/portfolio/
Disallow: /dbin/dos/ocs/
Disallow: /dev/
Disallow: /wbur/arts/
Disallow: /wbur/connection/
Disallow: /wbur/herenow/
Disallow: /wbur/livingonearth/
Disallow: /wbur/miscellaneous/
Disallow: /wbur/onpoint/
Disallow: /wbur/special_projects_unit/
Disallow: /wbur/wburnews/
Disallow: /wbur/woi/
Disallow: /link/
Disallow: /home-media/
# BUniverse exclusions added by kgrin on 2010-04-26
Disallow: /buniverse/add/
Disallow: /buniverse/admin/
Disallow: /buniverse/buniverse1/
Disallow: /buniverse/contact/
Disallow: /buniverse/cron/
Disallow: /buniverse/data/
Disallow: /buniverse/delete/
Disallow: /buniverse/edit/
Disallow: /buniverse/embed/
Disallow: /buniverse/login/
Disallow: /buniverse/logout/
Disallow: /buniverse/messages/
Disallow: /buniverse/my-videos/
Disallow: /buniverse/search/
Disallow: /buniverse/support/
Disallow: /buniverse/util/
Disallow: /buniverse/viewed/
Disallow: /buniverse/vote/
Disallow: /buniverse/youtube/
Disallow: /summer/archive/

### 
# Emergency change 2012-02-14 bfenster, in response to incident
User-agent: 008
Disallow: / 

### 
# Emergency change 2014-11-17 bfenster, in response to incident
User-agent: Netsparker
Disallow: / 


#####
# default action - currently it allows access to most of the site
# skipping dynamic content or private areas
#
User-agent: *
Disallow: /cms/
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /htbin/
Disallow: /htbin.ph/
Disallow: /BUbin/
Disallow: /bubin/
Disallow: /testing/
Disallow: /TESTING/
Disallow: /IT/SoftwareDist/
Disallow: /it/SoftwareDist/
Disallow: /software/
Disallow: /SOFTWARE/
Disallow: /IT/new/
Disallow: /it/new/
Disallow: /nis/
Disallow: /library/working/
Disallow: /library/WORKING/
Disallow: /reports/
Disallow: /nisdev/
Disallow: /bulletins/work/
Disallow: /admissions/test/
Disallow: /cas/oldsite/
Disallow: /MPA/
Disallow: /finaid/test/
Disallow: /naitest/
Disallow: /newswire/
Disallow: /practice/
Disallow: /providers/
Disallow: /stats/
Disallow: /usc/test/
Disallow: /webcentral/output/
Disallow: /webmail/
Disallow: /alumni/portfolio/
Disallow: /dbin/dos/ocs/
Disallow: /dev/
Disallow: /wbur/arts/
Disallow: /wbur/connection/
Disallow: /wbur/herenow/
Disallow: /wbur/livingonearth/
Disallow: /wbur/miscellaneous/
Disallow: /wbur/onpoint/
Disallow: /wbur/special_projects_unit/
Disallow: /wbur/wburnews/
Disallow: /wbur/woi/
Disallow: /link/
Disallow: /home-media/
# BUniverse exclusions added by kgrin on 2010-04-21
Disallow: /buniverse/add/
Disallow: /buniverse/admin/
Disallow: /buniverse/buniverse1/
Disallow: /buniverse/contact/
Disallow: /buniverse/cron/
Disallow: /buniverse/data/
Disallow: /buniverse/delete/
Disallow: /buniverse/edit/
Disallow: /buniverse/embed/
Disallow: /buniverse/login/
Disallow: /buniverse/logout/
Disallow: /buniverse/messages/
Disallow: /buniverse/my-videos/
Disallow: /buniverse/search/
Disallow: /buniverse/support/
Disallow: /buniverse/util/
Disallow: /buniverse/viewed/
Disallow: /buniverse/vote/
Disallow: /buniverse/youtube/
# academics/summer archive exclusions added by kgrin on 2011-07-17
Disallow: /academics/archive/
Disallow: /summer/archive/
Crawl-delay: 15
sitemap.xml No sitemap found

No sitemap found

Adding a sitemap helps search engines discover your pages.

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

Certificate validity

302
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, 659 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 659 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 128.197.236.4
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: edns02.bu.edu, edns01.bu.edu, edns03.bu.edu
Info::
2 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 (659 ms)
Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider.
Got: 659 ms
A128.197.236.4
AAAA—
CNAME—
NSedns02.bu.edu, edns01.bu.edu, edns03.bu.edu
MX
5 mx1.hc2706-39.iphmx.com
5 mx2.hc2706-39.iphmx.com
TXT
a4V5CxeWPi3/r5nrG/fp2mf8bI70nxWPpUhOCtaSvzU=
d365mktkey=M0OxizdtVNcUWXZe3yNtSjfsCAM2ye8yfml9rfIR8vYx
asv=a2db9061fe2c0d8996ebab42acf37c2b
pardot192822=e95b76f60f1f2dd27c11ef306f99d5472c871da9d221b2a08db5fecb618af01a
v=verifydomain MS=ms74687773
pardot_192822_*=2319b3b7ba3b841329ffb670d26bccab3ddb9cf8cd0a67cdb28cbd760bb98a08
google-site-verification=xmeyfQgB5dDMamBVUQr_BuUpNpqimItoXEKJ7aikqWI
amazonses:AwSvDmWwTx8okcatFIEnWSnq20Z9LPfd6DRCIh1vFJs=
d365mktkey=7qsGu1xt2piBD6R1Tywzn8SVLsatn3NuB9MR5WReZ0ox
v=verifydomain MS=ms17551242
BGELPNBsDxzCVsd892zu7uzc6/RS4XTHMBwfAzUDOuTGxWQ1ggk8vjNNHdbJuKLAUnYjS2GGqYKKvJCW...
google-site-verification=67INNBNCAQXRtks4u0Zt20tpzmBzJwHMN_CxcX5xz6A
google-site-verification=7DoOKBD8dD53G3N4o-I5jUbG_qjDxTSuZExk4p1qlY0
ZOOM_verify_nqTarCG_Sfec5hmDYIey9w
amazonses:dSjTJ5EAmNt4HCeFh5d73yXHdRAWl0hJ/4pTL7NmUD8=
amazonses:6PZDYpsrO7QArYfeoqWB73qyPXS+YY6o4boqlo2Da3U=
MS=ms14560947
adobe-idp-site-verification=a71f2fe0-25c1-46cd-9d0f-c83d769cc464
ZOOM_verify_yhxVUDjfdOc4LiPKGmrwOZ
miro-verification=377cc6659a02c6725b563adc7e39e17eaee09eb3
google-site-verification=uUBIo7rGZKIUNOEJ7yOahQe-AYkW4AwJPJrSsgQaQPE
pardot192822=fb9c4b0ba22a7462686372773f2e521d53de40b1db0bbfed977bcf46a4ff6907
SPF v=spf1 include:%{l}.%{o}.spf.bu.edu include:_u.ondmarc.bu.edu._spf.smart.ondmarc...
anthropic-domain-verification-naf36v=CEFZVHy1jQpWLrBBoNOxVc9F5
atlassian-domain-verification=aUzHV7Znf5W7zM9iKWIuXmQL2n3xyjLnhzctpiQ1dRDMXAAdF9...
cisco-ci-domain-verification=76b5749d7018bb6b7c5b4ff2294f07d53a130fe45d2f7883653...
dropbox-domain-verification=z6zza3wyksbx
amazonses:2YQZEyFhbb+XTfTQXV7NoBA07XHUUExz73D1KJlPap8=
brevo-code:956c0e08c148a9770622045342757477
apple-domain-verification=xbZoF0D4CQePMvfj
google-site-verification=ZXAn1MfviwxydrktJiphtqacGQ6i3BJMiWaOYhE0aW4
ms-domain-verification=ba683a5e-ca58-4005-82c5-bae45c91fbbb
amazonses:P9MFqEievVVPAd1/PX0PcTCBEOzYqYp/ix1L9lxbN40=
TAILSCALE-xoPhMaCbCi2oAgNoR6vU
openai-domain-verification=dv-jqEdCiOFLvqVPwoC3PcpCjU3
e2ma-verification=0wegb
yahoo-verification-key=A3O9VJ94l+a2frns/isnh9MBwLfPwVeMBgdvOb2l978=
amazonses:Lvbg/4wEfqYPAg39Surgr1mR4yRKoLyNZqgEObXYgeU=
pardot192822=9820d4cb1fb8aee684785fb4ef3504834e89c2a9dc72ae85619eb2d5afe36f76
KP949W92GKNQ0PZ0N88XHLBEWBWBY5ME4Y9319Q9J
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 659 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
Redirect Chain
1 redirect(s), 972 ms total
PASS
1 redirect(s), 972 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://bu.edu → https://www.bu.edu/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect
Info::
Redirect overhead: 972 ms total
Got: 972 ms

https://bu.edu

705 ms · HTTP/1.0

301

https://www.bu.edu/

267 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://bu.edu301705 msHTTP/1.0BigIP
2https://www.bu.edu/200267 msHTTP/1.1nginx/1.18.0

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

A+
Domain Intelligence
bu.edu — 40 years, 7 months old, hosted on BOSTONU-AS - Boston University, US
PASS
bu.edu — 40 years, 7 months old, hosted on BOSTONU-AS - Boston University, US
Info::
Domain registered until Jul 31, 2026 (3 months remaining)
Info::
Hosting: BOSTONU-AS - Boston University, US
Got: AS111
Domain expiry

19 days

July 31, 2026

SSL certificate

302 days

Issued by Sectigo Limited

Domain age

40 years, 7 months

Registered March 25, 1986

DNSSEC

Status unknown

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

BOSTONU-AS - Boston University, US

ASN AS111

128.197.236.4

Registrar

Registrar unknown

Lock status unknown 3 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Recommended actions
  • Renew the domain or enable auto-renewal to prevent accidental expiry
Registrar
Created March 25, 1986 (40 years, 7 months ago)
Expires July 31, 2026 (3 months)
Last Updated January 20, 2026
Name Servers edns03.bu.edu, edns01.bu.edu, edns02.bu.edu
Registrant Boston University
Hosting
IP Address 128.197.236.4
ASN AS111 (BOSTONU-AS - Boston University, US)
Provider BOSTONU-AS - Boston University, US
Data source: whois (0.9s)
A
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 686 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
84 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
148 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
305 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
686 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
686 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 84 ms TCP Connect 148 ms TLS Handshake 305 ms Server Processing 148 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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