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https://brown.edu

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
84
GRADE
B
FIX
1
REVIEW
3
PASS
5
INFO
0
Probed from Madrid, Spain
302 Found
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
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.brown.edu/
200https://brown.edu/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://brown.edu/ → https://www.brown.edu/

Consistent

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

Certificate validity

211
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, 797 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 797 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 128.148.252.217
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: bru-ns2.brown.edu, bru-ns1.brown.edu, ns1.ucsb.edu, bru-ns3.brown.edu
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 (797 ms)
Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider.
Got: 797 ms
A128.148.252.217
AAAA—
CNAME—
NSbru-ns2.brown.edu, bru-ns1.brown.edu, ns1.ucsb.edu, bru-ns3.brown.edu
MX
1 aspmx.l.google.com
5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com
10 alt4.aspmx.l.google.com
10 alt3.aspmx.l.google.com
TXT
google-gws-recovery-domain-verification=66047721
airtable-verification=5535dab3fd5abf3d31fb73a24ce236a4
google-site-verification=CQsMU3hqOZIhJQzTxe2xpgTi0oFRcZfAIwAqBPJeCr8
github-verification=ekYLSgdWns5XA28K32JpNpD53dWpQEHQAmg5y7BY
google-site-verification=TMHmnaGXUBOvMT3SfOS-AlImdLqJ9-fWBx3okFv-uBk
autodesk-domain-verification=qs3TZl-5r_Eh5r3JwjQW
pardot944583=e2ba7ce8a862f5fcd3ad2c346b8e89deb9e7d3e1952c546e1dedd6e8ecdd7cef
apple-domain-verification=crYG7A4bhGpvwTzq
google-site-verification=5-rUknSihbRlOk_3K_AlpEjqssGk4rZhPgA4-s8qYlg
google-site-verification=YIl4b2P-82QISbX5rb84-yWAGlchywgvaB-fxiuc4Uk
cisco-ci-domain-verification=122c4cac85430ffd529f4c1f7dbc9a90b3d511cd9486b79c39b...
google-site-verification=9NxSC7hDW1F0dOB7Hp5sj1b4Zh3YuOLsWALzm0W5e3M
docusign=084c221f-92f9-4237-beb8-c25279422ee0
adobe-idp-site-verification=6ebcbf14066f71570c159fe8a0d1b1a2bcea03a236c4d12b0ce0...
status-page-domain-verification=kq4dmwl07d6v
atlassian-domain-verification=Hs1rCYbV9DaUuZH78ks2h7V68IDvaPFkmvb6vrxSU/3HXmysLg...
pardot944583=81838c9b958042cc25cf7c1de9362605817a09e14335c6e99dce9e9c592a5d64
SPF v=spf1 ip4:128.148.0.0/16 ip4:209.235.66.235/32 ip4:74.122.104.0/22 ip4:35.163.1...
google-site-verification=QCn0OSvWRvD7YeRHGZTwnSkQh0SDA5CKP4bck29jzO8
airtable-verification=bac4a54d6902a818e66feca75b8ef44c
pardot944583=d49244476d8a6cb18f08efa3ad7d7ebe0fcae764e070dd67243617b7e0f315c5
pardot415652=d090abf01a8a7da7c4b0bc779d52e4a9b624669b43ae223775e6f75e2eb29df0
adobe-idp-site-verification=efe663bf-6c33-4611-9859-7439ff1a0e01
google-site-verification=Bew0eD4c4C7j72O-R9I1YordLnFaUr19jhN7vcYxOGM
MS=ms84006939
facebook-domain-verification=hhq8qum3rrjsi7ukp7pp1lr8clnx88
docusign=131f5a77-49dc-43fd-bd19-02151927d2e3
jamf-site-verification=xpH6lXpID3w-BWP1Pf53Yw
miro-verification=72ea693488717c97da4e2a48c89fdfee7e673b54
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 797 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), 465 ms total
PASS
1 redirect(s), 465 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://brown.edu → https://www.brown.edu/ (302)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect
Info::
Uses 302 (temporary) redirect
If permanent, use 301 instead.
Got: https://brown.edu

https://brown.edu

329 ms · HTTP/1.0

302

https://www.brown.edu/

136 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://brown.edu302329 msHTTP/1.0BigIP
2https://www.brown.edu/200136 msHTTP/1.1cloudflare

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

If permanent, use 301 instead.

Why this matters

302 (Found) is for genuinely temporary redirects — if this redirect is permanent, switch to 301 to preserve SEO equity.

Learn more ▾

Search engines treat 302 as temporary, keeping the original URL indexed and not transferring full link equity to the destination. Use 301 (Moved Permanently) for permanent redirects (HTTP→HTTPS, www-vs-non-www, URL restructures).

Source: Google Search Central

A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 4575 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 4575 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 2027 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 4575 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 2027 B Sitemaps referenced 0 User-agents * Blocking No — crawling allowed
#
# robots.txt
#
# This file is to prevent the crawling and indexing of certain parts
# of your site by web crawlers and spiders run by sites like Yahoo!
# and Google. By telling these "robots" where not to go on your site,
# you save bandwidth and server resources.
#
# This file will be ignored unless it is at the root of your host:
# Used:    http://example.com/robots.txt
# Ignored: http://example.com/site/robots.txt
#
# For more information about the robots.txt standard, see:
# http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html

User-agent: *
# CSS, JS, Images
Allow: /core/*.css$
Allow: /core/*.css?
Allow: /core/*.js$
Allow: /core/*.js?
Allow: /core/*.gif
Allow: /core/*.jpg
Allow: /core/*.jpeg
Allow: /core/*.png
Allow: /core/*.svg
Allow: /profiles/*.css$
Allow: /profiles/*.css?
Allow: /profiles/*.js$
Allow: /profiles/*.js?
Allow: /profiles/*.gif
Allow: /profiles/*.jpg
Allow: /profiles/*.jpeg
Allow: /profiles/*.png
Allow: /profiles/*.svg
# Directories
Disallow: /core/
Disallow: /profiles/
# Files
Disallow: /README.md
Disallow: /composer/Metapackage/README.txt
Disallow: /composer/Plugin/ProjectMessage/README.md
Disallow: /composer/Plugin/Scaffold/README.md
Disallow: /composer/Plugin/VendorHardening/README.txt
Disallow: /composer/Template/README.txt
Disallow: /modules/README.txt
Disallow: /sites/README.txt
Disallow: /themes/README.txt
Disallow: /web.config
# Paths (clean URLs)
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /comment/reply/
Disallow: /filter/tips
Disallow: /node/add/
Disallow: /search/
Disallow: /user/register
Disallow: /user/password
Disallow: /user/login
Disallow: /user/logout
Disallow: /media/oembed
Disallow: /*/media/oembed
# Paths (no clean URLs)
Disallow: /index.php/admin/
Disallow: /index.php/comment/reply/
Disallow: /index.php/filter/tips
Disallow: /index.php/node/add/
Disallow: /index.php/search/
Disallow: /index.php/user/password
Disallow: /index.php/user/register
Disallow: /index.php/user/login
Disallow: /index.php/user/logout
Disallow: /index.php/media/oembed
Disallow: /index.php/*/media/oembed
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type URL Set URLs 4575 entries Valid XML Yes
Sample URLs:
A+
Domain Intelligence
brown.edu — 40 years, 2 months old, hosted on BROWN - Brown University, US
PASS
brown.edu — 40 years, 2 months old, hosted on BROWN - Brown University, US
Info::
Domain registered until Jul 31, 2026 (3 months remaining)
Info::
Hosting: BROWN - Brown University, US
Got: AS11078
Domain expiry

15 days

July 31, 2026

SSL certificate

211 days

Issued by Internet2

Domain age

40 years, 2 months

Registered August 27, 1986

DNSSEC

Status unknown

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

BROWN - Brown University, US

ASN AS11078

128.148.252.217

Registrar

Registrar unknown

Lock status unknown 4 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 August 27, 1986 (40 years, 2 months ago)
Expires July 31, 2026 (3 months)
Last Updated September 11, 2025
Name Servers bru-ns2.brown.edu, bru-ns3.brown.edu, bru-ns1.brown.edu, ns1.ucsb.edu
Registrant Brown University
Hosting
IP Address 128.148.252.217
ASN AS11078 (BROWN - Brown University, US)
Provider BROWN - Brown University, US
Data source: whois (1.0s)
A
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 489 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
174 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
103 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
109 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
489 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
489 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 174 ms TCP Connect 103 ms TLS Handshake 109 ms Server Processing 104 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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