Skip to content
https://thestar.com.my

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
80
GRADE
B
FIX
1
REVIEW
4
PASS
4
INFO
0
Probed from Madrid, Spain
301 Moved Permanently
Checks
9
4 PASS 4 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), 1205 ms total
REVIEW
1 redirect(s), 1205 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://thestar.com.my → https://www.thestar.com.my/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect
Warning::
Redirect overhead: 1205 ms total
Got: 1205 ms

https://thestar.com.my

94 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.thestar.com.my/

1111 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://thestar.com.my30194 msHTTP/1.1openresty
2https://www.thestar.com.my/2001111 msHTTP/1.1nginx

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
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.thestar.com.my/
200https://thestar.com.my/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://thestar.com.my/ https://www.thestar.com.my/

Consistent

B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
79 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

79
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+

Recommended actions

  • 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, 28 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 28 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 3.33.236.10
Info::
Single A record — no DNS redundancy
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
4 nameserver(s) configured
Got: ns-1635.awsdns-12.co.uk, ns-525.awsdns-01.net, ns-415.awsdns-51.com, ns-1282.awsdns-32.org
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: 28 ms
Got: 28 ms
A3.33.236.10
AAAA
CNAME
NSns-1635.awsdns-12.co.uk, ns-525.awsdns-01.net, ns-415.awsdns-51.com, ns-1282.awsdns-32.org
MX
10 smtp.google.com
TXT
SPF v=spf1 include:eh1kl06qgw.powerspf.com include:mailgun.org ip4:88.99.80.190 ip4:...
google-site-verification=-HcGVJdNjnmfxHLdzl7gHuXdekQYGUraCxPDKueFNm4
MS=E8FDBF5385F8B3B29DC273378C47031854BA4F38
reh-verify=qkbdey.rediredge.com
google-site-verification=K21L1_MQC5w-itAoK_iuvvIVoOfxT4YkdOhexgloBXY
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 28 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+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 132 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 132 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 2774 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 132 entries
Info::
robots.txt does not reference a sitemap
Add a 'Sitemap:' directive to robots.txt so search engines can discover your sitemap.

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 2774 B Sitemaps referenced 0 User-agents SemrushBot/3~bl, YandexImages/3.0, SemrushBot, YandexBot, Sogou web spider/4.0, VoluumDSP-content-bot/2.0, Freshbot/4.0, RojakiniReader/1.0, RojakiniBot/1.0, PaperLiBot/2.1, ToutiaoSpider/1.0, *, MegaIndex.ru/2.0, Cutbot/+1.5, Baiduspider-render, Cliqzbot/2.0, MegaIndex.ru, Cutbot;+1.5, ToutiaoSpider, Baiduspider-render/2.0, Cliqzbot, AhrefsBot/5.2, Baiduspider/2.0, YandexBot/3.0, YandexImages, Cutbot/1.5, Slurp, Yahoo! Slurp, PaperLiBot, Clickagy Intelligence Bot v2, sogou spider, DotBot/1.1, Diffbot, AhrefsBot/6.1, Baiduspider Blocking No — crawling allowed

# All content on this website is owned and/or controlled by Star Media Group Berhad and/or
# its group of subsidiaries (collectively, “Star Media Group”). The content on this website is
# protected by the Malaysian copyright law and other relevant international treaties, and is
# made available for your personal and non-commercial use subject to these terms and
# conditions (https://www.thestar.com.my/Terms).
# The use of any device, tool, or process designed to data mine, scrape, or extract our
# content via automated means is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from Star
# Media Group. Prohibited usage shall include, but not limited to:
# (1) Text and data mining activities for any purpose;
# (2) The development, training, or operation of any software program, including but not
# limited to machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), or large language models (LLMs);
# (3) Creating, providing, reusing, or storing archived or cached data sets containing partially
# or the full piece of our content for use by others; and/or
# (4) Any other commercial purpose.
# For all content licensing inquiries, please contact us at product@thestar.com.my.


User-agent: *

Disallow: *utm_source
Disallow: /bin/
Disallow: /temp/
Disallow: /themes/
Disallow: /dailyalert/

Disallow: /search?
Disallow: /news/latest?pgno=*
Disallow: /subscribe/?tracking_id=*

user-agent: Diffbot
Disallow: /

User-agent: AhrefsBot/6.1
Disallow: /

User-agent: MegaIndex.ru
Disallow: /

User-agent: MegaIndex.ru/2.0
Disallow: /

User-agent: Cutbot;+1.5
Disallow: /

User-agent: Cutbot/1.5
Disallow: /

User-agent: Cutbot/+1.5
Disallow: /

User-agent: Slurp
Disallow: /

User-agent: Yahoo! Slurp
Disallow: /

User-agent: ToutiaoSpider
Disallow: /

User-agent: ToutiaoSpider/1.0
Disallow: /

User-agent: Baiduspider
Disallow: /

User-agent: Baiduspider/2.0
Disallow: /

User-agent: Baiduspider-render
Disallow: /

User-agent: Baiduspider-render/2.0
Disallow: /

User-agent: SemrushBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: SemrushBot/3~bl
Disallow: /

User-agent: YandexBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: YandexBot/3.0
Disallow: /

User-agent: YandexImages
Disallow: /

User-agent: YandexImages/3.0
Disallow: /

User-agent: PaperLiBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: PaperLiBot/2.1
Disallow: /

User-agent: Clickagy Intelligence Bot v2
Disallow: /

User-agent: sogou spider
Disallow: /

User-agent: Sogou web spider/4.0
Disallow: /

User-agent: Cliqzbot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Cliqzbot/2.0
Disallow: /

User-agent: VoluumDSP-content-bot/2.0
Disallow: /

User-agent: DotBot/1.1
Disallow: /

User-agent: AhrefsBot/5.2
Disallow: /

User-agent: AhrefsBot/6.1
Disallow: /

User-agent: Freshbot/4.0
Disallow: /

User-agent: RojakiniReader/1.0
Disallow: /

User-agent: RojakiniBot/1.0
Disallow: /


A
Domain Intelligence
thestar.com.my — via First Online (M) Sdn Bhd, 30 years, 4 months old, hosted on AWS
PASS
thestar.com.my — via First Online (M) Sdn Bhd, 30 years, 4 months old, hosted on AWS
Warning::
Domain expires in 36 days
Consider enabling auto-renewal to prevent accidental expiration.
Got: Expires May 28, 2026
Info::
Registrar: First Online (M) Sdn Bhd
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: AS16509
Domain expiry

EXPIRED

May 28, 2026

SSL certificate

79 days

Issued by Let's Encrypt

Domain age

30 years, 4 months

Registered May 28, 1996

DNSSEC

Status unknown

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

AWS

ASN AS16509

3.33.236.10

Registrar

First Online (M) Sdn Bhd

Unlocked 4 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Recommended actions
  • Domain has EXPIRED — renew immediately to avoid total site outage
  • Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
Registrar First Online (M) Sdn Bhd
Created May 28, 1996 (30 years, 4 months ago)
Expires May 28, 2026 (1 months)
Last Updated May 5, 2025
Name Servers ns-415.awsdns-51.com, ns-1635.awsdns-12.co.uk, ns-525.awsdns-01.net, ns-1282.awsdns-32.org
Registrant Star Media Group Berhad
Hosting
IP Address 3.33.236.10
ASN AS16509 (AMAZON-02 - Amazon.com, Inc., US)
Provider AWS
Data source: whois (1.0s)

Consider enabling auto-renewal to prevent accidental expiration.

Why this matters

Domain expiry approaching — renew immediately and ensure auto-renew + alerting are configured.

Source: ICANN renewal policy

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

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 37 ms TCP Connect 1 ms TLS Handshake 73 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.

Send Feedback