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Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
91
GRADE
A
FIX
1
REVIEW
3
PASS
5
INFO
0
Probed from Amsterdam, Netherlands
200 OK
Checks
9
5 PASS 3 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
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 927 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
REVIEW
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
278 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
106 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
215 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
820 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
927 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 278 ms TCP Connect 106 ms TLS Handshake 215 ms Server Processing 221 ms Content Transfer 107 ms
B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
141 days until leaf cert expires — 4 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

141
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
2 A records, 275 ms lookup
PASS
2 A records, 275 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 2 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 18.219.152.211, 3.135.101.36
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
4 nameserver(s) configured
Got: ns-783.awsdns-33.net, ns-1285.awsdns-32.org, ns-2008.awsdns-59.co.uk, ns-493.awsdns-61.com
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
Warning::
DNS resolution is slow (275 ms)
Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider.
Got: 275 ms
A18.219.152.211, 3.135.101.36
AAAA—
CNAME—
NSns-783.awsdns-33.net, ns-1285.awsdns-32.org, ns-2008.awsdns-59.co.uk, ns-493.awsdns-61.com
MX
1 aspmx.l.google.com
5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com
5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
10 alt3.aspmx.l.google.com
10 alt4.aspmx.l.google.com
TXT
google-site-verification=OtVm0j4Rqs4y10N827uQ_n8ZnMtO0vfqw1k5NCzaJvo
yahoo-verification-key=bP+HO9s82IBxbotbnF/O1nN4Jo4VfFXq5JNFAPCK8+o=
google-site-verification=HdFEloOqFNJZvQWa7SK2BRmWVt8aVnPuagqXZ-C2U5U
loaderio=2fd6086b1c3ba926ae36db37131123f7
google-site-verification=XuFuLW59WRoAbzeQ-wsF0JwpaeYwtdzRmtiktfi3Pmc
facebook-domain-verification=qptjyerza2q11uv3fe6aay6hbsncr8
google-site-verification=Xt1q2fpVK6qREDXADvlLz2O5pvmUz9G_xxoGdeEnrH0
SPF v=spf1 include:_u.arstechnica.com._spf.smart.ondmarc.com ~all
google-site-verification=nso4GHYIGZwo4gB6AoUxzJWkxOUdx83kbGeREAxnv3A
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 275 ms

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
No redirects — direct access
PASS
No redirects — direct access
Info::
No redirects — direct access
Got: https://arstechnica.com

https://arstechnica.com

818 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://arstechnica.com200818 msHTTP/1.1
A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 186 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 186 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 1885 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 186 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 186 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 1885 B Sitemaps referenced 1 User-agents Applebot-Extended, PanguBot, ia_archiver-web.archive.org, heritrix, Omgilibot, *, meta-webindexer, cohere-training-data-crawler, archive.org_bot, meta-externalfetcher, Diffbot, MistralAI-User, anthropic-ai, Googlebot-Image, ClaudeBot, CCBot, Amazonbot, Mediapartners-Google*, Claude-SearchBot, Perplexity-User, cohere-ai, DuckAssistBot, Webzio-Extended, Claude-Web, FacebookBot, YouBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, Timpibot, Webzio, ia_archiver, GoogleOther, meta-externalagent, Claude-User, PetalBot, Bytespider, Google-CloudVertexBot Blocking No — crawling allowed
Sitemap: https://arstechnica.com/sitemap.xml

# Google Image
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow:
Allow: /*

# Google AdSense
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google*
Disallow:

User-agent: Google-Extended
User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
User-agent: GoogleOther
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
User-agent: meta-webindexer
User-agent: meta-externalagent
User-agent: meta-externalfetcher
User-agent: ClaudeBot
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
User-agent: Claude-User
User-agent: PerplexityBot
User-agent: Perplexity-User
User-agent: cohere-training-data-crawler
User-agent: cohere-ai
User-agent: CCBot
User-agent: PanguBot
User-agent: PetalBot
User-agent: Bytespider
User-agent: Diffbot
User-agent: DuckAssistBot
User-agent: MistralAI-User
User-agent: Timpibot
User-agent: Webzio
User-agent: Webzio-Extended
User-agent: archive.org_bot
User-agent: ia_archiver
User-agent: ia_archiver-web.archive.org
User-agent: heritrix
User-agent: anthropic-ai
User-agent: Claude-Web
User-agent: FacebookBot
User-agent: Omgilibot
User-agent: YouBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Amazonbot
Disallow: /
Allow: /feed/amazon-rss

# Global
User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /wp/wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp/wp-includes/
Disallow: /wp/wp-content/
Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/
Disallow: /wp-content/mu_plugins/
Disallow: /wp-content/cache/
Disallow: /wp-content/themes/
Disallow: /trackback/
Disallow: /comments/
Disallow: /category/*/*
Disallow: */trackback/
Disallow: */comments/
Disallow: /search
Disallow: */*comments=
Disallow: */*comments-page=
Disallow: /services/*
Disallow: /com.condenast/yv8*

# Xenforo
Disallow: /civis/account/
Disallow: /civis/members/
Disallow: /civis/attachments/
Disallow: /civis/goto/
Disallow: /civis/help/
Disallow: /civis/posts/
Disallow: /civis/login/
Disallow: /civis/search/
Disallow: /civis/admin.php
Disallow: /civis/threads/*in_iframe=1*
Disallow: /civis/threads/*wp_data=*
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type Sitemap Index URLs 186 entries Valid XML Yes
Child Sitemaps:
A+
URL Variants
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
PASS
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
Info::
www/non-www redirect configured correctly (preferred: non-www)
Info::
HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

www / non-www

301https://www.arstechnica.com/
200https://arstechnica.com/

Preferred variant: non-www

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://arstechnica.com/ → https://arstechnica.com:443/

Consistent

A+
Domain Intelligence
arstechnica.com — via CSC Corporate Domains, Inc., 27 years, 7 months old, hosted on AWS
PASS
arstechnica.com — via CSC Corporate Domains, Inc., 27 years, 7 months old, hosted on AWS
Info::
Domain registered until Dec 30, 2027 (1 years, 9 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: CSC Corporate Domains, Inc.
Info::
Hosting: AWS
Got: AS16509
Domain expiry

536 days

December 30, 2027

SSL certificate

141 days

Issued by Amazon

Domain age

27 years, 7 months

Registered December 30, 1998

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

AWS

ASN AS16509

18.219.152.211

Registrar

CSC Corporate Domains, Inc.

Lock status unknown 4 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
Registrar CSC Corporate Domains, Inc.
Created December 30, 1998 (27 years, 7 months ago)
Expires December 30, 2027 (1 years, 9 months)
Last Updated December 26, 2025
Name Servers ns-1285.awsdns-32.org, ns-2008.awsdns-59.co.uk, ns-493.awsdns-61.com, ns-783.awsdns-33.net
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 18.219.152.211
ASN AS16509 (AMAZON-02 - Amazon.com, Inc., US)
Provider AWS
Data source: rdap (0.4s)

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

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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