Getting “took too long to respond” error for https, but http works fine

Question

I have a website hosted with amazon aws, ec2 server. If you don’t know, ec2 gives me a Windows Server I can access with remote desktop where I install IIS ect… I am using Web.Forms(with aspx files)

I have a DNS with GoDaddy. I am using Forwarding because I want to direct it to a specific aspx page, rather than just an IP address. I bought an SSL certificate with GoDaddy. Steps I have taken:

1) Steps 1-7 here: https://uk.godaddy.com/help/manually-install-an-ssl-certificate-on-my-iis-10-server-27349

2) I followed all the steps here: https://uk.godaddy.com/help/manually-install-an-ssl-certificate-on-my-aws-server-32075

3) I followed these steps: https://uk.godaddy.com/help/redirect-my-website-to-https-in-pleskwindows-27873 -- After doing these steps, http does not work anymore(which is expected)

4) I configured Windows Firewall to allow inbound and outbound to ports 80 and 443

5) I have seen this: HTTPS setup in Amazon EC2

Is there anything I am missing? I have a feeling the solution is going to be super easy, once it is discovered of course.

did you try and access the website from within the machine for e.g https://example.com — Arun Kamalanathan, Jan 04 '20 at 20:40
I had not tried that or even thought of it. It has IE on it, so I tried with that just now and got at least a different error that I can try to look into: The DNS server might be having problems. Error Code: INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND — James Carter, Jan 04 '20 at 22:13
Thank you very much. I wonder what that could mean though, that it does not exist... I will be looking into it for sure. Thanks again. — James Carter, Jan 04 '20 at 22:30

Arun Kamalanathan · Answer 1 · 2020-01-05T01:39:57.290

1

Forget that it's running on AWS. Once you get the website working inside the instance, it's all about just allowing port 443 on the security group to make it accessible from outside the instance.

Steps to troubleshoot,

ensure the endpoint exists
make sure the website works inside the instance with https enabled, if this step works fine, you are almost done.
Adjust the EC2 security groups to allow port 443 from everywhere.

edited Jan 05 '20 at 01:39

answered Jan 04 '20 at 22:44

Arun Kamalanathan

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Okay I am not having luck so far but I am still looking into it. I am just making sure that you meant 443 in both places in your answer, and not 440 at the top. – James Carter Jan 05 '20 at 01:35
Unfortunately this answer did not solve my problem. I suppose 'ensure the endpoint exists' was the solution, but not really detailed or specific enough. I solved it by guessing what was the issue and going from there. My solution has been posted. Thanks for the help. – James Carter Jan 05 '20 at 22:07

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 05 '20 at 22:04

1) So the problem was with GoDaddy’s DNS. While GoDaddy gives you the option to Forward an https address, they actually do not support https with Forwarding! https://uk.godaddy.com/community/SSL-And-Security/Forwarding-works-as-long-as-URL-does-not-contain-https/td-p/44951

2) In order to handle not using Forwarding, I had to remove all other Default Documents from IIS(except for one) as well as making the main default document be: DirectoryName/MainPage.aspx.

3) Also, I had to use the URL Rewrite Module and follow these steps: https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/9953/38/iis-redirect-http-to-https

And that was finally it! After those three steps my website now works in https, and will not work in http, but will redirect the user to the https if they don’t type in https.

Also good to note the SSL Settings are NOT set to “Require” as I would have assumed.

Getting “took too long to respond” error for https, but http works fine

2 Answers2