Targets whose home page redirects are checked at /robots.txt (closes #194)

A check follows a redirect and times the request to the new URL too. So the AWS Console, the Google Cloud Console, Akamai, B2 and the eight S3 regions are now checked at /robots.txt on their own host, which answers without a redirect. Before, the S3 and B2 figures also timed a page on another host. The S3 regions are checked with HEAD, because Chrome closes the connection after a GET of their /robots.txt and the figure would then include connection setup every time. README.md says what a figure includes.

Reports name a target by its URL, so these targets' samples are stored under the new URLs.

Model: opus-5-5

web/src/main.js

@@ -67,51 +67,66 @@ export const CONFIG = {
 
 // WAN endpoints to monitor. These are used for the aggregate health/stats
 // display (min/max/avg). Ordered: personal, LLM APIs, big-3 cloud, then
-// CDN/hosting/other.
+// CDN/hosting/other. A check follows a redirect and times the request to
+// the new URL too. So a target whose home page redirects is checked at
+// /robots.txt on its own host. That URL answers without a redirect.
 const WAN_HOSTS = [
     { name: "datavi.be", url: "https://datavi.be" },
     { name: "Anthropic API", url: "https://api.anthropic.com" },
     { name: "OpenAI API", url: "https://api.openai.com" },
-    { name: "AWS Console", url: "https://console.aws.amazon.com" },
-    { name: "Google Cloud Console", url: "https://console.cloud.google.com" },
+    { name: "AWS Console", url: "https://console.aws.amazon.com/robots.txt" },
+    {
+        name: "Google Cloud Console",
+        url: "https://console.cloud.google.com/robots.txt",
+    },
     { name: "Microsoft Azure", url: "https://portal.azure.com" },
     { name: "Cloudflare", url: "https://www.cloudflare.com" },
     { name: "Fastly CDN", url: "https://www.fastly.com" },
-    { name: "Akamai", url: "https://www.akamai.com" },
+    { name: "Akamai", url: "https://www.akamai.com/robots.txt" },
     { name: "Google", url: "https://www.google.com" },
     { name: "GitHub", url: "https://github.com" },
-    { name: "B2", url: "https://api.backblazeb2.com" },
+    { name: "B2", url: "https://api.backblazeb2.com/robots.txt" },
+    // Chrome keeps the connection to an S3 region open after a HEAD check,
+    // but closes it after most GET checks.
     {
         name: "S3 af-south-1 (Cape Town)",
-        url: "https://s3.af-south-1.amazonaws.com",
+        url: "https://s3.af-south-1.amazonaws.com/robots.txt",
+        method: "HEAD",
     },
     {
         name: "S3 eu-west-2 (London)",
-        url: "https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com",
+        url: "https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/robots.txt",
+        method: "HEAD",
     },
     {
         name: "S3 me-south-1 (Bahrain)",
-        url: "https://s3.me-south-1.amazonaws.com",
+        url: "https://s3.me-south-1.amazonaws.com/robots.txt",
+        method: "HEAD",
     },
     {
         name: "S3 ap-northeast-1 (Tokyo)",
-        url: "https://s3.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com",
+        url: "https://s3.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/robots.txt",
+        method: "HEAD",
     },
     {
         name: "S3 ap-southeast-1 (Singapore)",
-        url: "https://s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com",
+        url: "https://s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/robots.txt",
+        method: "HEAD",
     },
     {
         name: "S3 ap-southeast-2 (Sydney)",
-        url: "https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com",
+        url: "https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/robots.txt",
+        method: "HEAD",
     },
     {
         name: "S3 us-west-2 (Oregon)",
-        url: "https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com",
+        url: "https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/robots.txt",
+        method: "HEAD",
     },
     {
         name: "S3 sa-east-1 (São Paulo)",
-        url: "https://s3.sa-east-1.amazonaws.com",
+        url: "https://s3.sa-east-1.amazonaws.com/robots.txt",
+        method: "HEAD",
     },
     // Hetzner regional speed test servers — genuine per-DC endpoints
     {
@@ -271,6 +286,7 @@ export class HostState {
     constructor(host, pinned = false) {
         this.name = host.name;
         this.url = host.url;
+        this.method = host.method;
         // Each entry is either a check's result, { timestamp, latency,
         // error }, or a round skipped while paused, { timestamp,
         // latency: null, paused: true }.
@@ -567,17 +583,18 @@ export class Reporter {
 
 // --- Latency Measurement -----------------------------------------------------
 
-// Checks one target. The check times out after CONFIG.requestTimeout; the
-// caller can give it up sooner through the optional signal, which also ends
-// it as a timeout. A failed check's reason says what went wrong and after
-// how long; a check that answered has none.
+// Checks one target with the given HTTP method, GET when none is given. The
+// check times out after CONFIG.requestTimeout; the caller can give it up
+// sooner through the optional signal, which also ends it as a timeout. A
+// failed check's reason says what went wrong and after how long; a check
+// that answered has none.
 //
 // The Hetzner speed-test servers close the connection without an answer
 // when the URL has a query string or the request has a Referer header. So
 // the URL is fetched as written, and referrerPolicy: "no-referrer" sends
 // no Referer header, wherever the page is served from. cache: "no-store"
 // keeps the browser's cache out of the measurement.
-export async function measureLatency(url, signal) {
+export async function measureLatency(url, signal, method = "GET") {
     const controller = new AbortController();
     const timeoutId = setTimeout(
         () => controller.abort(),
@@ -589,7 +606,7 @@ export async function measureLatency(url, signal) {
 
     try {
         await fetch(url, {
-            method: "GET",
+            method,
             mode: "no-cors",
             cache: "no-store",
             referrerPolicy: "no-referrer",
@@ -1292,7 +1309,7 @@ export async function tick(state, signal, onOffline) {
     // the round started.
     await Promise.all(
         state.allHosts.map(async (host) => {
-            const r = await measureLatency(host.url, signal);
+            const r = await measureLatency(host.url, signal, host.method);
             if (state.paused || signal.aborted || state.tickCount === 0) {
                 return;
             }
@@ -1365,7 +1382,7 @@ function startRecoveryProbe(state, startRounds) {
         const checks = new AbortController();
         state._recoveryProbeChecks = checks;
         for (const host of canaries) {
-            measureLatency(host.url, checks.signal).then((r) => {
+            measureLatency(host.url, checks.signal, host.method).then((r) => {
                 if (r.error !== null || checks.signal.aborted) return;
                 log.notice("Recovery probe: connectivity detected");
                 stopRecoveryProbe(state);