Infrastructure - https://mcmaster.ca BeaverCheck Audit

D

Redirect Chain

Action

2 redirect(s), 2400 ms total

FIX

2 redirect(s), 2400 ms total

2 redirects before reaching final URL

Each redirect adds latency. Try to minimize the chain to 1 hop.

HTTP to HTTPS redirect present

WWW normalization redirect

2-hop chain could be reduced to 1 hop

Redirect directly from https://mcmaster.ca to https://www.mcmaster.ca/

Uses 302 (temporary) redirect

If permanent, use 301 instead.

Got: https://mcmaster.ca

Redirect overhead: 2400 ms total

Got: 2400 ms

https://mcmaster.ca

362 ms · HTTP/1.1

302

http://www.mcmaster.ca

286 ms · HTTP/1.1

302

https://www.mcmaster.ca/

1752 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#	URL	Status	Time	Protocol	Server
1	https://mcmaster.ca	302	362 ms	HTTP/1.1	Apache/2.4.37 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) OpenSSL/1.1.1k
2	http://www.mcmaster.ca	302	286 ms	HTTP/1.1	Apache/2.4.37 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) OpenSSL/1.1.1k
3	https://www.mcmaster.ca/	200	1752 ms	HTTP/1.1	Apache/2.4.37 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) OpenSSL/1.1.1k

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

Each redirect adds latency. Try to minimize the chain to 1 hop.

Why this matters

Redirect chain — each hop adds latency; combine into one redirect where possible.

Source: Google Search Central / web.dev

Redirect directly from https://mcmaster.ca to https://www.mcmaster.ca/

Why this matters

Redirect chain could be flattened to one hop — server config tweak removes intermediate latency.

Source: web.dev

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

D

CDN & Delivery

Action

No CDN detected

FIX

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

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

robots.txt is present

Got: 933 bytes

No sitemap.xml found

A sitemap helps search engines discover and index your pages more efficiently.

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 933 B Sitemaps referenced 0 User-agents * Blocking No — crawling allowed

# robots.txt file for www.mcmaster.ca

User-agent: *
Disallow:   /busstrike/
Disallow:   /cgi-bin/
Disallow:   /inabisbin/
Disallow:   /extras/
Disallow:   /counter/
Disallow:   /crsreg/
Disallow:   /develop/
Disallow:   /events/
Disallow:   /eventsbkp/
Disallow:   /guest/
Disallow:   /guest-demo/
Disallow:   /mail_results/
Disallow:   /mcsearch/
Disallow:   /netscapeConfig/
Disallow:   /NetTracker/
Disallow:   /nscal/
Disallow:   /search/
Disallow:   /search1/
Disallow:   /regadmin/
Disallow:   /regform/
Disallow:   /searchmac/
Disallow:   /stats/
Disallow:   /verify_links/
Disallow:   /webph/
Disallow:   /purchase/misc/
Disallow:   /ua/misc/
Disallow:   /cis/regform/
Disallow:   /CFIDE/
Disallow:   /cis/projects/
Disallow:   /usage/
Disallow:   /emplibrary/
Disallow:   /empower/
Disallow:   /empsessions/
Disallow:   /campaign_removed_UTSES-2651/
Disallow:   /respectfulcommunity/
Disallow:   /mosaic_removed_HMPS-7192/

sitemap.xml No sitemap found

No sitemap found

Adding a sitemap helps search engines discover your pages.

C

URL Variants

Action

www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS

REVIEW

www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS

Both www and non-www versions serve content

Got: Both variants return 200 Expected: One variant 301-redirects to the other

HTTP→HTTPS redirect uses 302 instead of 301

Got: 302 temporary redirect Expected: 301 permanent redirect

www / non-www

200https://www.mcmaster.ca/

200https://mcmaster.ca/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

302http://mcmaster.ca/ → https://www.mcmaster.ca/

Use 301 (permanent) instead of 302 (temporary)

B

TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations

194 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to address

REVIEW

Certificate validity

194

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, 97 ms lookup

PASS

1 A records, 97 ms lookup

Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)

Got: 130.113.64.30

Single A record — no DNS redundancy

Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.

No IPv6 (AAAA) records

2 nameserver(s) configured

Got: ns1.d-zone.ca, ns2.d-zone.ca

1 mail exchanger(s) configured

CAA records not checked

CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.

SPF record present in TXT

DNS resolution time: 97 ms

Got: 97 ms

A	130.113.64.30
AAAA	—
CNAME	—
NS	ns1.d-zone.ca, ns2.d-zone.ca
MX	0 mcmaster-ca.mail.protection.outlook.com
TXT	google-site-verification=9knrlgB1k5mlqMc-mRkfmB6ryk_8PBx8b21NKa0C0h4 d365mktkey=Kfw4OKxFpDoXxX9CgrCCaaQ3rUZq03oSYsSGjY52X6gx atlassian-domain-verification=7tVM7m0gVEaRA9kiMGlZ/z6VAf74LxiDHqtGrln5uTAqAFrJIn... d365mktkey=gPNQIa4KmKgOufBiee20rAgWhXsW6YTzMuxxQ8Nq6xIx d365mktkey=xy3Lm4UNHC8g9Fx4SHxho7WrZG5eX4XL74hS5FQEKgUx SPF v=spf1 redirect=mcmaster.ca.hosted.spf-report.com d365mktkey=GwGpcGCtSXEHHxeN6637RIwGlqxnNT3KACzTRTlKjFQx d365mktkey=QnPbNLcY6L4sBkMiNoDo4LE4yzsAjvyLR6WFYx3SQFMx d365mktkey=YTnNJYJsii4myK252BbgMuWJut9vz2L6kYhVlBDzauAx d365mktkey=BqjSQ7Bvr0rnf5WzRbel4CtxAYI3EML4y9RNypv8QKEx atlassian-sending-domain-verification=0fb14a24-012b-41f7-b7a1-7e3ce42d0b86 apple-domain-verification=pP0SnDHkvHNfZF2H yahoo-verification-key=guywSkoDLewLBVrunZ63TFuBGAqT1xe+OQ7u+n1GpKE= d365mktkey=tzDJlROex9Lhg8E6yBxB0MxJMjYYxvDhdxi4t9GTcfgx google-site-verification=WGIS_SpZZPrKhZjyLuOu5vsB_xym1JXNmVo1ylY75Wo adobe-idp-site-verification=521fb07e70c74d375d9021764f9bccbb552b39a1450af19876b6... klaviyo-site-verification=TPLqQP d365mktkey=7gYLyRxLlNczgQo110ItXr9uIISpe41yQUHtyAwSXkcx d365mktkey=zSvHOR1ZhqzajQtQWrQO9b75HKRJMPNJBmwFuCvClv8x iContact723692 brevo-code:09357c2630559d902817770f34dbf0b1 d365mktkey=4hhuixh78jd6s4sjmxg1hko4r d365mktkey=CtpnUrHG46UYQrF4eNN5pO80U6PQK9xS37l7Cg6Nntgx d365mktkey=XPSGEHOCqgkzxxlY1MUqVmWRmsAGMXOcs5llB5Vxl7kx
CAA	Lookup not available with standard resolver

Resolved in 97 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+

Domain Intelligence

mcmaster.ca — via CanHost Inc., 25 years, 10 months old, hosted on MCMASTER - McMaster University, CA

PASS

mcmaster.ca — via CanHost Inc., 25 years, 10 months old, hosted on MCMASTER - McMaster University, CA

Domain registered until Apr 13, 2032 (6 years remaining)

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.

Registrar: CanHost Inc.

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.

Hosting: MCMASTER - McMaster University, CA

Got: AS23237

Domain expiry

2128 days

April 13, 2032

SSL certificate

194 days

Issued by Sectigo Limited

Domain age

25 years, 10 months

Registered October 20, 2000

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

MCMASTER - McMaster University, CA

ASN AS23237

130.113.64.30

Registrar

CanHost Inc.

Unlocked 2 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
Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers

Registrar CanHost Inc.

Created October 20, 2000 (25 years, 10 months ago)

Expires April 13, 2032 (6 years)

Last Updated March 3, 2023

Name Servers ns1.d-zone.ca, ns2.d-zone.ca

DNSSEC Not enabled

Registrant McMaster University

Hosting

IP Address 130.113.64.30

ASN AS23237 (MCMASTER - McMaster University, CA)

Provider MCMASTER - McMaster University, CA

Data source: rdap (0.6s)

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

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 462 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown

PASS

DNS Lookup

41 ms

TCP Connect

111 ms

TLS Handshake

115 ms

Time to First Byte

463 ms

Total Time

463 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 41 ms TCP Connect 111 ms TLS Handshake 115 ms Server Processing 196 ms Content Transfer 0 ms