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Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
81
GRADE
B
FIX
1
REVIEW
5
PASS
3
INFO
0
Probed from Sao Paulo, Brazil
301 Moved Permanently
Checks
9
3 PASS 5 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.

B
Redirect Chain
1 redirect(s), 2063 ms total
REVIEW
1 redirect(s), 2063 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://vcu.edu → https://www.vcu.edu/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect
Warning::
Redirect overhead: 2063 ms total
Got: 2063 ms

https://vcu.edu

699 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.vcu.edu/

1365 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://vcu.edu301699 msHTTP/1.1
2https://www.vcu.edu/2001365 msHTTP/1.1

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

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.vcu.edu/
200https://vcu.edu/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

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

Consistent

B
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 812 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
REVIEW
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
263 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
134 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
277 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
812 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
812 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 263 ms TCP Connect 134 ms TLS Handshake 277 ms Server Processing 139 ms Content Transfer 0 ms
B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
136 days until leaf cert expires — 4 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

136
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
1 A records, 925 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 925 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 128.172.22.56
Info::
Single A record — no DNS redundancy
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
2 nameserver(s) configured
Got: ext-dns-east.vcu.edu, ext-dns-west.vcu.edu
Info::
2 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 (925 ms)
Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider.
Got: 925 ms
A128.172.22.56
AAAA—
CNAME—
NSext-dns-east.vcu.edu, ext-dns-west.vcu.edu
MX
5 mx1.vcu.iphmx.com
5 mx2.vcu.iphmx.com
TXT
e2ma-verification=0nsbb
atlassian-sending-domain-verification=869b567d-5bcd-40a2-b724-f3789e10cd7c
atlassian-sending-domain-verification=2090651f-d2b5-4d89-910a-86f7bd523afc
atlassian-domain-verification=s5EkkkX3wSAWfCk/PmipBabYfaa0frM4mLha/SpC0Zjlw5RnAU...
jamf-site-verification=L0xl9GQ-wotYJq-KFpzR5A
autodesk-domain-verification=mndgFfqXHT_S0Oz-JDSs
brevo-code:efbb7f711da9ba2ef6d97696bf8f80a6
brevo-code:32fd08faf8349644ccbab0eba631dedf
SPF v=spf1 include:vspf2.vcu.edu include:_spf.google.com include:mail.clinchtalent.c...
ZOOM_verify_pbVY4FYLmrozj6SFwnqHOB
openai-domain-verification=dv-mEvyK1bvWnEXzGn0Bb2BdEd6
brevo-code:833b25a8c3e75b480de7df17ef02ffcf
e2ma-verification=443gb
linkedin-site-verification=b87323f8-c518-4e5f-9954-95fa9406994c
brevo-code:b1414e0a234265a2faa294058248ae06
wpe-verification=blogsvcu
atlassian-domain-verification=mszTJo1hbp6tcIPfqO0vCcLXyT8W30zetAwPjg09N9-Vqr+6fd...
docusign=b718519f-2cea-4248-9bb5-00e247b54d24
docusign=4c37046f-edcc-49c3-b0c6-c67c3d67e524
MS=ms11879761
google-site-verification=kMGWk2H2qf6Ne0NOdleTaFOi14gu-zyVukdnpFuyfmI
adobe-idp-site-verification=c6b3bef0ad331816e0a362f3e51ffe2b81e66711bae5f86526bb...
bioraft._domainkeyTXTv=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCA...
amazonses:K5RDhNyz0I6SNgLINyTFcwboY0M/GtkCCaDIpzldTlI=
apple-domain-verification=7BA9CltOZpVLxVHd
apple-domain-verification=UEmDZYVTL4zH2sCg
google-site-verification=YjNtIdpjIVADt9TtOFjAqFfBiSbSWmeu_4LWBdWeQzM
airtable-manual-domain-verification=32898e72-8ed5-4b9d-adde-ce799379a1b6
Iv_Ypx500XwC5NlGJ1cn
google-site-verification=1zOkbwitYjaAiBJFM0XEaeQ2zYAeeNkNvTAJNXAIVa4
0897c21d48e6702628a6ae9262a0ad17098200113337f7083a
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 925 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+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 73 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 73 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 269 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 73 entries
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 269 B Sitemaps referenced 1 User-agents Terminalfour Nutch Spider, * Blocking No — crawling allowed
# Virginia Commonwealth University

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: /assets
Disallow: /sandbox

# Link to sitemap
#Sitemap: https://vcu.staging2.vcu.edu/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.vcu.edu/sitemap.xml

User-agent: Terminalfour Nutch Spider
Allow: /
Crawl-delay: 1
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type URL Set URLs 73 entries Valid XML Yes
Sample URLs:
A+
Domain Intelligence
vcu.edu — 37 years, 11 months old, hosted on VCU-ASN1 - Virginia Commonwealth University, US
PASS
vcu.edu — 37 years, 11 months old, hosted on VCU-ASN1 - Virginia Commonwealth University, US
Info::
Domain registered until Jul 31, 2027 (1 years, 3 months remaining)
Info::
Hosting: VCU-ASN1 - Virginia Commonwealth University, US
Got: AS16643
Domain expiry

410 days

July 31, 2027

SSL certificate

136 days

Issued by Internet2

Domain age

37 years, 11 months

Registered November 11, 1988

DNSSEC

Status unknown

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

VCU-ASN1 - Virginia Commonwealth University, US

ASN AS16643

128.172.22.56

Registrar

Registrar unknown

Lock status unknown 2 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Registrar
Created November 11, 1988 (37 years, 11 months ago)
Expires July 31, 2027 (1 years, 3 months)
Last Updated January 29, 2026
Name Servers ext-dns-east.vcu.edu, ext-dns-west.vcu.edu
Registrant Virginia Commonwealth University
Hosting
IP Address 128.172.22.56
ASN AS16643 (VCU-ASN1 - Virginia Commonwealth University, US)
Provider VCU-ASN1 - Virginia Commonwealth University, US
Data source: whois (1.3s)
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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