Infrastructure
· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.DCDN & DeliveryActionNo CDN detectedFIX
Consider using a CDN to improve global delivery speed and reduce origin load.
CIPv6 ReadinessActionNo IPv6 supportREVIEW
IPv6 support is increasingly important for global accessibility. About 40% of internet users have IPv6 connectivity.
No AAAA records — same impact as 'no IPv6 (AAAA) records'; IPv6-preferring clients pay extra latency falling back to IPv4.
Source: Google IPv6 stats
CCrawlabilityActionrobots.txt present, sitemap with 0 URLsREVIEW
Search engines may not be able to parse the sitemap. Fix XML validation errors.
An unparseable sitemap is silently ignored by Google — the URLs it advertises are never queued for crawl.
Learn more ▾ ▴
Google's sitemap parser is strict about XML validity. A single unescaped `&` or unclosed tag invalidates the whole file. Run your sitemap through a validator (Search Console's Sitemaps report flags it) and fix the offending entry. Most generators escape correctly; mistakes usually come from manually-written entries.
Source: sitemaps.org / Google Search Central
An empty sitemap provides no value. Add <url> entries for your pages.
An empty sitemap signals 'no content to index' to Google — actively harmful versus having no sitemap at all.
Learn more ▾ ▴
Google compares URLs in the sitemap against URLs it has crawled. An empty sitemap on a site with thousands of pages signals abandonment. Either populate it correctly (most CMSes auto-generate) or delete the file and let Google crawl normally.
Source: Google Search Central / sitemaps.org
Add a 'Sitemap:' directive to robots.txt so search engines can discover your sitemap.
robots.txt omits Sitemap: directive — crawlers must fetch /sitemap.xml by convention; reliable but missing the explicit hint.
Source: sitemaps.org
<!DOCTYPE html><html lang="en-US"><head><meta charSet="UTF-8"/><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1,minimum-scale=1"/><link rel="preload" as="image" href="https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/503d791d5e627eebcbf1a3380d8d89e00dace41d/hub/2024/07/25/50d61b9b-1c76-4678-9a92-f6eca531f4a8/nyt-mini-crossword-234876.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=170&width=300"/><script type="didomi/javascript" async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=AW-16716908964"></script><script async="" src="/_fs-ch-1T1wmsGaOgGaSxcX/assets/script.js"></script><title>Free Software Downloads and Reviews for Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS - CNET Download</title><link rel="preconnect" href="https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net"/><link rel="preconnect" href="https://c.amazon-adsystem.com"/><link rel="preconnect" href="https://www.cnet.com"/><link rel="preconnect" href="https://www.googletagmanager.com"/><link rel="preconnect" href="https://assets.dwncdn.net"/><link rel="preconnect" href="https://images.dwncdn.net"/><link rel="preconnect" href="https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net" crossorigin=""/><link rel="preconnect" href="https://c.amazon-adsystem.com" crossorigin=""/><meta property="td-page" content="Home"/><meta property="rv-tech" content="beren"/><meta property="rv-compliant" content="0"/><meta property="rv-interstitial-unhideWindow" content="true"/><meta property="rv-interstitial-navBar" content="true"/><link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net"/><link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://c.amazon-adsystem.com"/><link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://www.cnet.com"/><link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://www.googletagmanager.com"/><link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://assets.dwncdn.net"/><link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://images.dwncdn.net"/><meta name="title" content="Free Software Downloads and Reviews for Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS - CNET Download"/><meta name="description" content="CNET Download provides free downloads for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices across all categories of software and apps, including security, utilities, games, video and browsers"/><meta name="robots" content="all"/><link rel="canonical" href="https://download.cnet.com/"/><link rel="alternate" hrefLang="en" href="https://download.cnet.com/"/><link rel="alternate" hrefLang="x-default" href="https://download.cnet.com/"/><link rel="alternate" hrefLang="es" href="https://download.cnet.com/es/"/><meta name="google-adsense-account" content="sites-8478182238710563"/><meta name="theme-color" content="#fff"/><meta property="og:ttl" content="2419200"/><meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="IE=edge"/><link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="https://assets.dwncdn.net/public/493820.ico"/><link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://assets.dwncdn.net/public/65777f.png"/><link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="192x192" href="https://assets.dwncdn.net/public/d69f8c.png"/><link rel="apple-touch-icon" type="image/png" sizes="180x180" href="https://assets.dwncdn.net/public/8527db.png"/><script id="script-params" class="script-params" type="application/json">{"defaultDeviceType":"desktop","defaultPlatformId":"windows","defaultSiteURL":"https://download.cnet.com/","isCacheBypassed":false,"coreEnv":"production","routeId":"home","site":{"hasArticles":true,"isActive":true,"isDefault":true,"languageCode":"en","locale":"en-US","notifyExperiments":true,"url":{"basePath":"/","defaultSubdomain":"","domain":"download.cnet","hostname":"download.cnet.com","protocol":"https:","baseURL":"https://download.cnet.com/"},"languageName":"English"},"ga4Number":"G-J3Q0P3GWJ9","assetPrefix":"https://assets.dwncdn.net","appVersion":"1.2115.0","behaviorRules":{},"iconsURL":"/statics/beren/icons.svg","thumbnailPlaceholderURL":"https://assets.dwncdn.net/public/365cfe.svg","imagePlaceholderURL":"https://assets.dwncdn.net/public/d8b289.svg","ssoBaseURL":"","platforms":[{"name":"Windows","id":"windows","slug":"windows"},{"name":"Android","id":"android","slug":"android"},{"name":"Mac","id":"mac","slug":"mac"},{"name":"iOS","id":"iphone","slug":"ios"}]}</script><script id="init-tracking">
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
window.uetq = window.uetq || [];
window.eventTracker = window.eventTracker || {};
eventTracker.cmd = eventTracker.cmd || [];
</script><script id="google-tag-manager">
(function(w,d,l){
w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'})
})(window,document,'dataLayer')
</script><script id="universal-event-tracker">
(function(w,d,t,r,u)
{
var f,n,i;
w[u]=w[u]||[],f=function()
{
var o={ti:"97201904", enableAutoSpaTracking: true};
o.q=w[u],w[u]=new UET(o),w[u].push("pageLoad")
},
n=d.createElement(t),n.src=r,n.async=1,n.onload=n.onreadystatechange=function()
{
var s=this.readyState;
s&&s!=="loaded"&&s!=="complete"||(f(),n.onload=n.onreadystatechange=null)
},
i=d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0],i.parentNode.insertBefore(n,i)
})
(window,document,"script","//bat.bing.com/bat.js","uetq");
</script><script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id=GTM-NB5XQQ9V"></script><script data-default-platform-id="windows" data-default-device-type="desktop">(function() {
const defaultPlatformId = document.currentScript?.dataset.defaultPlatformId;
const defaultDeviceType = document.currentScript?.dataset.defaultDeviceType;
const berCookies = document.cookie.split(";").reduce((acc, cookie)=>{
const [rawKey, rawValue] = cookie.split(/=(.+)/);
const key = rawKey.trim();
if (key === "utm") {
acc[key] = Object.fromEntries(new URLSearchParams(rawValue).entries());
} else {
try {
acc[key] = decodeURIComponent(rawValue);
} catch (_e) {
acc[key] = rawValue;
}
}
return acc;
}, {});
const countryCode = berCookies["ber-country-code"] ?? "XX";
const isEU = /^(AT|BE|BG|HR|CY|CZ|DK|EE|FI|FR|DE|GR|HU|IE|IT|LV|LT|LU|MT|NL|PL|PT|RO|SK|SI|ES|SE|GB|NO|IS|LI)$/.test(countryCode);
const isUS = countryCode === "US";
let adsRegion = "C";
if (/^(US|AU|CA|GB|IE|NZ)$/.test(countryCode)) {
adsRegion = "A";
} else if (/^(JP|NL|DE|IT|FR|ES|BE|LU|AT|CH|NO|SE|DK|PT)$/.test(countryCode)) {
adsRegion = "B";
}
const utm = berCookies["utm"] || {};
window.berConfig = {
countryCode,
city: berCookies["ber-city"],
browserName: berCookies["ber-browser-name"],
region: berCookies["ber-region"],
adsRegion,
isEU,
isUS,
isBot: (berCookies["ber-is-bot"] ?? "false") === "true",
isLanding: (berCookies["ber-is-landing"] ?? "false") === "true",
userPlatformId: berCookies["ber-user-platform-id"] || defaultPlatformId,
userLanguage: window.navigator.language,
deviceType: berCookies["ber-device-type"] || defaultDeviceType,
userAgent: window.navigator.userAgent,
utmMedium: utm.medium ?? "organic",
utmSource: utm.source ?? "",
utmCampaign: utm.campaign ?? "",
experimentBucket: berCookies["_swo_pos"] ?? "0",
activeExperimentVariant: berCookies["_swo_vis"] ?? ""
};
})();
</script><script async="" data-domain-script="018f5340-401b-765c-a228-126472016816" src="/statics/assets/oneTrust/scripttemplates/otSDKStub.js"></script><script id="ads-script">(function() {
if (window.berConfig?.countryCode !== "RU") {
const script = document.currentScript;
const dataset = script ? script.dataset : {};
const enabledURL = dataset.enabledUrl;
const gptScript = document.createElement("script");
gptScript.src = "https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js";
gptScript.async = true;
document.head.appendChild(gptScript);
const adSenseScript = document.createElement("script");
adSenseScript.src = "https://www.google.com/adsense/search/ads.js";
adSenseScript.async = true;
document.head.appendChild(adSenseScript);
if (enabledURL) {
window.googletag = window.googletag || {
cmd: []
};
googletag.cmd.push(function() {
googletag.pubads().set("page_url", enabledURL);
});
}
(function(g, o) {
g[o] = g[o] || function() {
(g[o]["q"] = g[o]["q"] || []).push(arguments);
}, g[o]["t"] = 1 * new Date;
})(window, "_googCsa");
}
})();
</script><script data-tag-id="AW-16716908964" type="didomi/javascript">const tagId = document.currentScript.dataset.tagId;
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag() {
dataLayer.push(arguments);
}
gtag("js", new Date);
gtag("config", tagId, {
linker: {
decorate_forms: false
}
});
</script><script id="revamp-script">!function(t) {
function s(s, a) {
t.revamp.cmd.push([
s,
a
]);
}
t.revamp = t.revamp || {};
t.revamp.cmd = [];
t.revamp.displaySlots = t.revamp.displaySlots || function() {
s("displayDeferredSlots", arguments);
};
t.revamp.destroySlots = t.revamp.destroySlots || function() {
s("destroyGptSlots", arguments);
};
t.revamp.disableDi = t.revamp.disableDi || function() {
s("disableDi", arguments);
};
t.revamp.displayCustomInterstitial = t.revamp.displayCustomInterstitial || function() {
s("displayCustomInterstitial", arguments);
};
t.revamp.getFPValues = t.revamp.getFPValues || function() {
s("getFPValues", arguments);
};
}(window);
(function() {
window.revampAdRendered = window.revampAdRendered || [];
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
window.uetq = window.uetq || [];
window.dataLayer.push({
di_status: "revamp_not_lo
BTLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations87 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to addressREVIEW
Certificate validity
Recommended actions
- 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 Records1 A records, 31 ms lookupPASS
| A | 35.187.33.31 |
| AAAA | — |
| CNAME | — |
| NS | ns-cloud-d3.googledomains.com, ns-cloud-d1.googledomains.com, ns-cloud-d2.googledomains.com, ns-cloud-d4.googledomains.com |
| MX | 0 mxb-00262c01.gslb.pphosted.com 0 mxa-00262c01.gslb.pphosted.com |
| TXT | MS=ms67064858 ip4:216.239.125.28/23 ip4:202.73.54.176/28 ip4:58.65.7.128/28 include:_spf.google.com include:spf-00262c01.pphosted.com -all ip4:62.108.138.0/28 ip4:216.239.114.214/23 ip4:216.239.114.222/23 google-site-verification:ZgT2oOTb8bnurVcKr3D6b3mjvXuvobb20MAs7ZUp9Zk SPF v=spf1 mx ip4:64.30.227.218 ip4:64.30.226.54/31 ip4:74.125.148.0/22 |
| CAA | Lookup not available with standard resolver |
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
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.
Informational: CAA (Certification Authority Authorization) records weren't checked in this scan.
ARedirect Chain1 redirect(s), 191 ms totalPASS
https://download.com
75 ms · HTTP/1.1
https://download.cnet.com
116 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL
| # | URL | Status | Time | Protocol | Server |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | https://download.com | 301 | 75 ms | HTTP/1.1 | |
| 2 | https://download.cnet.com | 200 | 116 ms | HTTP/1.1 |
See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →
AURL Variantswww/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPSPASS
www / non-www
Preferred variant: non-www
HTTP → HTTPS
Use 301 (permanent) instead of 302 (temporary)
A+Domain Intelligencedownload.com — via CSC Corporate Domains, Inc., 30 years, 7 months old, hosted on Google CloudPASS
223 days
February 25, 2027
87 days
Issued by Let's Encrypt
30 years, 7 months
Registered February 24, 1996
Not enabled
Protects against DNS spoofing
Google Cloud
ASN AS396982
35.187.33.31
CSC Corporate Domains, Inc.
Expiry timeline
Recommended actions
- Enable DNSSEC to protect visitors from DNS spoofing
- Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
DNSSEC protects against DNS spoofing attacks. While not required, enabling DNSSEC adds an additional layer of security. Contact your DNS provider to enable it.
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.
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