Changelog

What changed on SignalDNS, newest first. The version you’re using is at the foot of every page.

0.8.3

  • The foot of every page shows how many checks SignalDNS has run. We count checks, and the kinds of problems they find, by day, without the addresses checked. The privacy page explains what’s counted.

0.8.2

  • The page audit flags a security.txt Expires date that isn’t in the format RFC 9116 requires, and a file with more than one Expires line.
  • The CORS check in the redirect tracer sends a preflight only when a browser would. A plain GET to a server that refuses preflights is no longer reported as blocked, and the answer says which kind of request a browser sends.
  • The page audit no longer misses a noindex when a site sends two X-Robots-Tag headers and the first names another crawler.

0.8.1

  • More to learn. Guides for everything the page audit checks, from titles, descriptions, and link previews to robots.txt, structured data, and page weight, and one on CORS. Every page audit answer links to the part that explains it.
  • The page audit reads a robots.txt line such as User-agent: Googlebot/2.1 as meaning Googlebot, as Google does, and no longer counts tables in a page’s menus and footer.
  • The CORS check knows that Access-Control-Allow-Headers: * never covers Authorization, and the page audit follows the strictest image preview rule when a page’s rules disagree.

0.8.0

  • Learn. Plain-language guides to everything the report checks, at /learn: what each result means, why it matters, and how to fix it, with links to your provider’s own instructions.
  • Every answer, and every step under “What to do next”, links to the part of a guide that explains it.

0.7.19

  • This changelog. What changed on SignalDNS, release by release, linked from the foot of every page.

0.7.18

  • Undid the deployment change in 0.7.17. The site runs as it did in 0.7.16.

0.7.17

  • A change to how new versions are deployed, meant to keep the site up while it updates. It didn’t start on our server, and signaldns.com was unavailable for about 15 minutes until 0.7.18 undid it.

0.7.16

  • How heavy is the page? The page audit adds up the page and the scripts, stylesheets, fonts, and images it links to, names the largest files, and lists the other sites it loads from. Pages over 4 MB, images over 1 MB, and scripts sent uncompressed are flagged.
  • What is it built with? The page audit names the CMS, framework, analytics, and other tools it recognises, and says where it saw each one.

0.7.15

  • CORS check. In the redirect tracer, give an origin and see whether a browser on that site would be allowed to call the address, and what blocks it if not.
  • Compression and caching. The page audit says whether the page is sent compressed, and shows its caching headers.
  • security.txt. When a site publishes one, the page audit checks its contact and expiry date.
  • The page audit lists every robots.txt group, the lines crawlers skip, and the page’s home screen tags.

0.7.14

  • Check a list of domains in the certificate inspector and registration record: up to 50 at once, with a CSV download and one calendar file of reminders for every expiry.
  • Compare two domains side by side at /compare: hosting, certificates, DNS, registration, and email, with the differences marked.
  • The registration record shows the name server addresses the registry holds, and its related links.

0.7.13

  • TLS versions. The certificate check says which versions of TLS a server accepts, and explains a failed connection when it only accepts old ones.
  • The certificate inspector shows each certificate’s signature algorithm and what it may be used for.
  • Encrypted email. The email check reads MTA-STS and TLS-RPT, and checks the certificates mail apps see on mail., imap., and smtp. names.
  • A domain whose SPF hands over to its mail provider with redirect=, as gmail.com’s does, no longer shows the provider as missing.

0.7.12

  • The domain’s own name servers. The report and the DNS lookup ask each name server directly, and say when one doesn’t answer or they disagree.
  • Changes on their way. When a resolver still has an older answer than the name servers give now, the answer says which resolver and how long until it updates.
  • Different SOA records from each resolver are no longer reported as a disagreement.

0.7.11

  • More from DNS lookup: every record’s TTL; SRV, HTTPS, DS, and DNSKEY records, with whether the registry’s DS matches one of the domain’s keys; SOA records as labelled fields; and the name each address points back to.
  • Expected value. Enter the value you expect, such as a new address, and see which resolvers return it yet.
  • OpenDNS is a fourth resolver to compare.

0.7.10

  • Rate-limit messages say which limit you reached, how many checks it allows, and when the next one frees up.

0.7.9

  • A check that hits a rate limit waits a moment and tries again. If it’s still limited, it says so plainly instead of “We couldn’t check”.

0.7.8

  • Check a list in the redirect tracer: up to 50 addresses at once, each with its own answer, downloadable as CSV.
  • Each visitor now gets their own rate limit.

0.7.7

  • The report also tries the http:// and www (or bare) versions of the address, and flags when they don’t lead to the same place.
  • Cross-checks between answers: the registry’s name servers against the domain’s own, CAA against the certificate’s authority, and DNSSEC failures against the registry’s records.
  • DNSSEC is checked, and a broken setup is explained with the fix.
  • Registry statuses, such as a hold or a pending delete, are explained.
  • The email check finds DKIM keys without a selector, flags mail servers without an address, and notices when SPF leaves out your mail provider.
  • A line under the summary names who appears to run the DNS, hosting, registration, certificate, and mail.
  • Try one check again, download the report as text or JSON, print it, or add a calendar reminder for a certificate or registration expiry.

0.7.6

  • Every tool now looks and reads like the report: the answer first, then the evidence, with the same buttons and words throughout, and a better layout on phones.

0.7.5

  • Fixes to answers that were wrong or overstated, after checking every one against the standards and Google’s current documentation. Among them: a site that blocks our server is no longer reported as broken, short-lived certificates aren’t flagged just for being short-lived, different addresses from a CDN are normal, and DMARC follows the new RFC 9989.

0.7.4

  • signaldns.com sends security headers itself, and has icons Google Search can show.
  • A real “page not found” page.
  • The privacy page names Cloudflare, which serves the site, and says exactly what’s kept.

0.7.3

  • The page audit runs a full checklist: each check with what we found, why it matters, and the fix.
  • The search preview shows the site’s real icon.

0.7.2

  • Addresses no longer look like they’re missing a slash.
  • “Audit this page” in the report opens the page audit.

0.7.1

  • Page audit: how a page looks in search and when shared, whether search engines can list it, its headings, images, and structured data, and which search features it could get, with an editable search preview. There’s no score.

0.7.0

  • A page tags tool, and “Can search engines list it?” in the report.

0.6.0

  • Email setup, in the report and as its own tool: mail servers, SPF, DMARC, and DKIM.

0.5.1

  • The report’s Details view shows everything each check observed.

0.5.0

  • A new report that checks a domain’s page, certificate, DNS, and registration together, and marks each answer Problem, Needs attention, OK, or Couldn’t check, with next steps. A new look across the site.

0.4.1

  • Maintenance, with nothing changed in the tools. The footer shows the version number.

0.4.0

  • Registration record: a domain’s registrar, dates, name servers, and statuses, from its registry.

0.3.0

  • Certificate inspector: whether a site’s certificate is valid, trusted, and matches its name.

0.2.1

  • Small fixes to “Skip to content” and to links.

0.2.0

  • DNS lookup: compare the records Cloudflare, Google, and Quad9 return.

0.1.1

  • First release: the redirect tracer, which follows an address’s redirects and shows each step’s status, headers, and timing.