Infrastructure

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

SCORE

GRADE

FIX

REVIEW

PASS

INFO

Probed from Amsterdam, Netherlands

301 Moved Permanently

Checks

3 PASS 5 REVIEW 1 FIX

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.

Redirect Chain

1 redirect(s), 3032 ms total

REVIEW

1 redirect(s), 3032 ms total

Single redirect

Got: https://northwestern.edu → https://www.northwestern.edu/ (301)

WWW normalization redirect

Redirect overhead: 3032 ms total

Got: 3032 ms

https://northwestern.edu

2127 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.northwestern.edu/

905 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#	URL	Status	Time	Protocol	Server
1	https://northwestern.edu	301	2127 ms	HTTP/1.1	Apache
2	https://www.northwestern.edu/	200	905 ms	HTTP/1.1	Apache

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

Crawlability

robots.txt present, no sitemap

REVIEW

robots.txt present, no sitemap

robots.txt is present

Got: 2338 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 2338 B Sitemaps referenced 0 User-agents * Blocking No — crawling allowed

# robots.txt generated by cron job
# Produced 10/27/2023 at 03:27
User-agent: *
# Directives generated from .NOINDEX files
Disallow: /.TRASH/
Disallow: /.old-it-pages/
Disallow: /.old/
Disallow: /101/
Disallow: /account-management-devel/
Disallow: /activities/
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /amstp/
Disallow: /ar/
Disallow: /buehler/
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /chicagocampusmaps/
Disallow: /cms/
Disallow: /common/
Disallow: /compute/
Disallow: /course-viewer/
Disallow: /demo-department/
Disallow: /docs/
Disallow: /dwhouse/
Disallow: /family-institute/
Disallow: /fieldstudies/
Disallow: /graduate-fellowships/
Disallow: /helpdesk/.work/
Disallow: /helpdesk/network/
Disallow: /helpdesk/pre/
Disallow: /icair/.old/
Disallow: /it-menu-proto/
Disallow: /it-menu/
Disallow: /it-virtual/.archive/
Disallow: /it/guidelines/old/1997-04/
Disallow: /it/guidelines/old/1998-01/
Disallow: /it/guidelines/old/1998-04/
Disallow: /it/guidelines/old/
Disallow: /it/guidelines/proto/
Disallow: /it/icair_new/
Disallow: /it/ms/
Disallow: /itg/
Disallow: /need-it/
Disallow: /newsfeed/
Disallow: /nmc/
Disallow: /not-in-production/
Disallow: /nu150/book/.old/
Disallow: /nu150/postcards/images/
Disallow: /nu150/postcards/ssi/
Disallow: /nuilr/
Disallow: /nuinfo-proto12/www-v8/emergency/ssi/
Disallow: /nuinfotest/
Disallow: /nuportalbreakingnews/
Disallow: /registrar/cgi-bin/
Disallow: /resnet/
Disallow: /search-help/
Disallow: /sed/
Disallow: /service/
Disallow: /sheil/
Disallow: /stomatology/
Disallow: /student/old/
Disallow: /summersa/
Disallow: /test/
Disallow: /traffic/
Disallow: /tss-virtual/.work/
Disallow: /tss-virtual/pre/
Disallow: /tss/siguccs/1996/abstracts/
Disallow: /tss/siguccs/
Disallow: /tss/troubleshoot/obsolete/
Disallow: /undergrad-finaid/
Disallow: /univ-relations/webproto/med-design/
Disallow: /univ-relations/webproto/
Disallow: /ur-staff-proto/
Disallow: /vp-research-gradstudies/
Disallow: /webservices/.test/
Disallow: /webservices/resources/forms/
Disallow: /webservices/
Disallow: /webtech/
Disallow: /world/admin/
Disallow: /world/interesting/atl-interest/admin/
Disallow: /world/
Disallow: /wrestling/
Disallow: /www-v5/emergency/alert/
Disallow: /www-v5/emergency/ssi/
Disallow: /www-v6/emergency/ssi/
Disallow: /www-v8/emergency/ssi/
Disallow: /xscs/
Disallow: /it-test-2016/
Disallow: /nuinfo-proto9-old/
#

sitemap.xml No sitemap found

No sitemap found

Adding a sitemap helps search engines discover your pages.

URL Variants

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 correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

www / non-www

200https://www.northwestern.edu/

200https://northwestern.edu/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://northwestern.edu/ → https://northwestern.edu/

Consistent

HTTP Probe Timing

Action

Total 1659 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown

REVIEW

DNS Lookup

97 ms

TCP Connect

151 ms

TLS Handshake

310 ms

Time to First Byte

1.66 s

Total Time

1.66 s

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 97 ms TCP Connect 151 ms TLS Handshake 310 ms Server Processing 1.10 s Content Transfer 0 ms

TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations

150 days until leaf cert expires — 4 issues to address

REVIEW

Certificate validity

150

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

DNS Records

1 A records, 557 ms lookup

PASS

1 A records, 557 ms lookup

Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)

Got: 129.105.136.48

Single A record — no DNS redundancy

Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.

Has 1 IPv6 (AAAA) record(s)

Got: 2620:10d:2060:1130::11

2 nameserver(s) configured

Got: cicada.northwestern.edu, accuvax.northwestern.edu

6 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 is slow (557 ms)

Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider.

Got: 557 ms

A	129.105.136.48
AAAA	2620:10d:2060:1130::11
CNAME	—
NS	cicada.northwestern.edu, accuvax.northwestern.edu
MX	10 evcspprf10.ads.northwestern.edu 10 chcspprf12.ads.northwestern.edu 10 evcspprf12.ads.northwestern.edu 10 chcspprf10.ads.northwestern.edu 10 chcspprf11.ads.northwestern.edu 10 evcspprf11.ads.northwestern.edu
TXT	1password-site-verification=BR3MWXAWFNE27AURQLQ63WDRJI 1password-site-verification=AKOZ2FA4KVDZVB2WIBPWNZPYMA 1password-site-verification=CGRE2PDYLRBOPFFIW46T6ITZYI 1password-site-verification=3MYXZ6SK4JE45IZ5FAXBDR7LD4 1password-site-verification=37SGZIVTRVEL5DQTSUWO3L5NGE 1password-site-verification=F2YH372MGFEDZNBWE3RRX2M3HQ 1password-site-verification=JNDWUQBTNVAGPMP5KESXD2U5NI google-site-verification=8WyWoINKNlsTuf2nWYi3vb7iiyPwBep9YvBG6m4o1fQ anthropic-domain-verification-3eep30=DHxzZec9vtXxkA5StH9lo1B4U google-site-verification=oSfSWkOtx6qxEyIh15y43gPJ3HY5TMzWpXPc8gew-pM MpF/pxyIbd2TGsQKh57kf3ecv4SfRiMZIudiD7pUaY8ZAaL6cY47o16zJFiENVSGQ7nrVt9Pyb0s0nfg... MS=ms15670620 GaaAAULeTS9jjsu8F6mnX3ZtjSWjd/4YW3LyLKdCE1wB9CVQHUTgERxcJ2W3OLTXEOPo9qD8gstLcMwk... 42ad5276f8c76e3aa7aba59f08c2388416602b49816bfe4f910c260d33542590 SPF v=spf1 include:_netblocks.northwestern.edu include:_thirdparty3.northwestern.edu... pardot_300191_=080f09c49e7eb64332fcc99a3e05ea6c5a0d00947a391c544c4256825ad2ee14 google-site-verification=Ke5DeKRWATTA1LkfkALMOXZq_wInzgf4u46rI2nvQG4 facebook-domain-verification=onibrcw94iuga1gf51xsl4wb89nv9o adobe-idp-site-verification=b6817dcc6d57aafd2993af9737558668d132a4f6c2be7bc6aa05... amazonses:PD1svM8Ux6TaXc7Gzh7bEKYK8ki2nt1gzZx0bKpaJPg= amazonses:0G1rTZw4h/ZJ8pnm67+KKxSL41IP0Ok7GZUZ7IF/kZc= amazonses:eKCoAQOpP+sWBz54nKIZTfjnWJSS7Nrflp9ziIraP1M= amazonses:7r2Zk09xSsTpfnWKtxmYJqXsJOGSGsquQGrckxhTLUI= amazonses:8oZtwYE9ip7ShHqAmkO/bCOQbr1zqwQ9D3DcOdg6eMg= pardot_173702_=aa8773dcb6a126024aa0b4c2fbdcd16f5ba0767a9bead5ce03e6cdfd04494bc1 heroku-domain-verification=eaplc3aun11qelkdtsldjhphtxd8e9lxgynivu8r7ou heroku-domain-verification=lkzqcjtywk9y15oqajjfjhfsj3yzhttfsnntflhamg e2ma-verification=mqrbb docusign=a9a8c30b-5844-4a65-995e-459f94ba44cb GPPC1PK09AQ8LP26S3BFV2V13J z1/UwJH/ACUtQQU6LldIrY1Eo4JoYmP6PzLTvoYOXUkfNU3SaGeFOy4Prq5nqZexEdorFsis8SbVg1eD... amazonses:DZsENA3kuW1mjc3jEvW6+z5hUO62mwUoT87pnzTaf2A= d365mktkey=xt1hLB4gw2T7iFXV1iYLC9PcsJFRuG4N5XyxNxSz5WIx apple-domain-verification=KNwL7NSAK2SpsRMu d365mktkey=0V7CjmQsFv6Bhv1cVfQkZjAr5uRh26ZrHORSsm4uYz8x canva-site-verification=0HSrTp1mGzQqUAr1nqBPRw d365mktkey=3sx0ueFpqdoj3WBJf0sx4NhmncxBrQHo9qfNx4D1jMAx brevo-code:5deda3e5d370ee66c342fbd5f975e89e sending_domain1034433=38ebc148ddd6039c4b9d6043bc7639f7d7a09ffc1a1030e844cbb7edd9... atlassian-domain-verification=5UNNdqF8FtPW6KPOLr5ya5M0lLuZdY3AKtzVgCnpjpHNMVoecO... atlassian-domain-verification=9blFnkdSnPAYZHHGZX7bcIPVdtxTze0WKZ8EWQpzVeX74ra810... miro-verification=200d2c47a8bcbd759c1b54e2715daa85dbc6e448 cfc3f98f8ecde55ff68bb5d1d3c9280b asv=cfc3f98f8ecde55ff68bb5d1d3c9280b 1password-site-verification=OX265AOAIVBPFAMBGIW2GWQR2A 1password-site-verification=TU2TZZQDJVEHPEYIWMLMTHLGMY 1password-site-verification=JSY6ASYAGZA43CH3XK6FK7JJ2Q 1password-site-verification=FHHJ25J2EJCEPF2TFPIKLM5G4E 1password-site-verification=0X265A0AIVBPFAMBGIW2GWQR2A 1password-site-verification=TL5OF5SM3FD5DPZPFT6ZZ4JYDU jamf-site-verification=cywdLcHbxX4hK6mvnJi_Ng 1password-site-verification=25VQYL7S2BAO5NB32BKAGPSUMI 1password-site-verification=PTN5AQVBWBGYFNCBRY3ABWCWQI 1password-site-verification=2HEV2OXQFJE55O4XLNVVLCVMLA 1password-site-verification=5LTWPARKRBBYFFHRDL5FNG6XPU 1password-site-verification=5BFPFETXOFGHXJ4RLIUXMOWWAQ 1password-site-verification=XBTJB3U3IFGHPEWXCACUAXB77U 1password-site-verification=SD2NGGG6C5E4LDJHRTQAFXA6MQ 1password-site-verification=ICSJFLU7YNDGRGECMZAHXFGKTI
CAA	Lookup not available with standard resolver

Resolved in 557 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+

IPv6 Readiness

IPv6 reachable (95 ms)

PASS

IPv6 reachable (95 ms)

IPv6 is configured and reachable at 2620:10d:2060:1130::11

Got: 95 ms connect

IPv6 Ready

AAAA Records 2620:10d:2060:1130::11 Connection Reachable (95 ms)

A+

Domain Intelligence

northwestern.edu — 27 years, 6 months old

PASS

northwestern.edu — 27 years, 6 months old

Domain registered until Jul 31, 2027 (1 years, 3 months remaining)

Domain expiry

381 days

July 31, 2027

SSL certificate

150 days

Issued by Internet2

Domain age

27 years, 6 months

Registered February 18, 1999

DNSSEC

Status unknown

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

Unknown

2620:10d:2060:1130::11

Registrar

Registrar unknown

Lock status unknown 2 NS records

Expiry timeline

Today

+1 year

Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)

Registrar

Created February 18, 1999 (27 years, 6 months ago)

Expires July 31, 2027 (1 years, 3 months)

Last Updated July 25, 2025

Name Servers accuvax.northwestern.edu, cicada.northwestern.edu

Registrant Northwestern University

Hosting

IP Address 2620:10d:2060:1130::11

Data source: whois (0.6s)

All checks on this page are automated. Results are estimates - run targeted manual reviews when the score affects a release decision.