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https://liverpool.ac.uk

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
83
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.

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: 769 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 769 B Sitemaps referenced 0 User-agents *, Funnelback, blackboardally Blocking No — crawling allowed
User-Agent: *

Disallow: /*/tulip-template/

Disallow: /intranet/

Disallow: /Intranet/

Disallow: /search/

Disallow: /courses/search?

Disallow: /psychology-health-and-society/research/reactions-to-cancer/

Disallow: /staff-profile-preview/

Disallow: /staff-profile-processing/

Disallow: /clearing/template/

Disallow: /redbrick/


#added 24/06/2015 D Hassen for Darren Bradford (Funnelback search)

User-agent: Funnelback

Allow: /intranet/

Allow: /Intranet/

Disallow: /*/tulip-template/

Disallow: /search/

Disallow: /psychology-health-and-society/research/reactions-to-cancer/

Disallow: /staff-profile-preview/

Disallow: /staff-profile-processing/

Disallow: /redbrick/


#added 13/04/2021 DH for WM (Blackboard Ally)

User-agent: blackboardally

Allow: /
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.liverpool.ac.uk/
200https://liverpool.ac.uk/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

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

Consistent

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

Certificate validity

163
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, 128 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 128 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 138.253.13.50
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: dns0.liv.ac.uk, ns0.york.ac.uk, ns4.ja.net, dns1.liv.ac.uk
Info::
5 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: 128 ms
Got: 128 ms
A138.253.13.50
AAAA—
CNAME—
NSdns0.liv.ac.uk, ns0.york.ac.uk, ns4.ja.net, dns1.liv.ac.uk
MX
10 iron4.liv.ac.uk
10 iron6.liv.ac.uk
10 iron5.liv.ac.uk
30 iron3.liv.ac.uk
30 iron2.liv.ac.uk
TXT
SPF v=spf1 include:%{i}._ip.%{h}._ehlo.%{d}._spf.vali.email include:mailgun.org ~all
d3a647f0-9caf-4e2c-b739-19cb2402e50d.100718
l60pnwck1s88ys8t4t7trh43mf3thsn1
hpg2hz7y6t5gkm3xkjbxyl2m0s3bd40r
adobe-idp-site-verification=0b1f2135af595191ba6f600786dceedb7cd78d12634c55775463...
ZOOM_verify_0HNos0PzQwSTb__V9qamCw
as=1687771568
autodesk-domain-verification=NFtIpGze_05R5Md62-21
apple-domain-verification=vO3SwxLI4so8y0oM
canva-site-verification=KIwsnbzekq-cZEOMXHjWkA
MS=ms21112035
05f57b2b-279f-4a50-b6b2-f59186a4ee26
atlassian-domain-verification=adWygssJiawycdrPvhYBDPNhyM28PO402m5kOkiyeQfUWTGdGz...
google-site-verification=EMQEoH0mCHJuZXlG4kOOUkk93kbcHmrSSl3H7Ri3MC0
CMAURSXORA1ZAT9EQ3JG67SH9Q4SY7KPCG5F76O8S
zapier-domain-verification-challenge=518e7bf0-bba5-46a7-8475-60af92fa3aa6
QuoVadis=d74e8ca2-38e2-49ba-8fa0-26162bb5cf21
yahoo-verification-key=/cLD4pc2n5hZPHZxd2lPtl9F07g30wkfWVcKe9EAofg=
have-i-been-pwned-verification=198f2c61026af8d468b2a4a2fee83fb3
QuoVadis=d3423132-9c01-4f2a-90f5-d5c2af48cb41
dW5pdmVyc2l0eQ==
liverpool.ac.uk::adobe-sign-verification=ed4b255819ca68ecbccec24f69f3c2b3
sB+oEyXaAUqITlhCt1hqSO8FsGa3qJERh5TtCXpocc15iMuRQbwmAo+Z8kYxB6ZeWIXbJZTQ440O5hC6...
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 128 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), 406 ms total
PASS
1 redirect(s), 406 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://liverpool.ac.uk → https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect

https://liverpool.ac.uk

139 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/

267 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://liverpool.ac.uk301139 msHTTP/1.1
2https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/200267 msHTTP/1.1UoL Web Server

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

A+
Domain Intelligence
liverpool.ac.uk — via No registrar listed. This domain is directly registered with Nominet., hosted on JANET Jisc Services Limited, GB
PASS
liverpool.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

163 days

Issued by Sectigo Limited

Domain age

Unknown

DNSSEC

Status unknown

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

JANET Jisc Services Limited, GB

ASN AS786

138.253.13.50

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 138.253.13.50
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 177 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
39 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
34 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
71 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
177 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
177 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 39 ms TCP Connect 34 ms TLS Handshake 71 ms Server Processing 34 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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