Intermittent SSL connection problems with IIS6 on Windows 2003 R2 SP2

[Andrew Dancy]

I'm tearing my hair out over a really annoying problem with a website
hosted with IIS6 and would appreciate any help people can give.

We've just had to migrate a website from an old Windows 2000 machine
to a new Windows 2003 machine, and at the same time move it into a new
hosting facility. Now we're experiencing problems with some users
unable to use SSL to connect via https to our website. I'm not
completely sure whether it's a problem with IIS, Windows, the firewall
(a Cisco PIX) or the hosting facility, but I thought I'd start with
the former and try to eliminate those as potential causes first.

The website is at http://www.lovetts.co.uk and also at https://www.lovetts.co.uk
.. Some of our clients have no problem using the https version.
However, others get an Internet Explorer 'page cannot be displayed'
when they try to access the SSL version. This seems to rule out a
certificate issue, as otherwise no-one would be able to see the site.
To be sure, I've had the certificate reissued and reinstalled.

The IIS6 logs don't show anything at all, and our firewall simply logs
a TCP reset, indicating either the client or the server dropped the
connection.

The clients experiencing problems have a mix of operating systems
(Windows 2000 and XP mostly) and a variety of IE versions (mainly 6 or
7) so there doesn't appear to be a common link there.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Any ideas? Also, if there
is anyone that can't get to https://www.lovetts.co.uk and doesn't mind
doing a bit of diagnostic work (traceroutes, MTU checking, etc) then
I'd be grateful if they could reply or email me.

Andrew

 

[Anthony [MVP]]

Re: Intermittent SSL connection problems with IIS6 on Windows 2003 R2 SP2

Andrew,
The certificate looks fine. Both sites open fine from here.

If I disable javascript I don't get a menu. You seem to be using MenuMachine
for Adobe GoLive.

Are you saying that those people who can't view the https default page can
always view the http default page, or is it something more than that?

For people who fail over https, do you know if it still fails when they add
you to their trusted sites? I am also wondering if it has something to do
with proxy servers.

Anthony,
http://www.airdesk.co.uk



"Andrew Dancy" <adancy@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7df6a9f2-87ca-476d-a22e-0816b474fa8e@m45g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> I'm tearing my hair out over a really annoying problem with a website
> hosted with IIS6 and would appreciate any help people can give.
>
> We've just had to migrate a website from an old Windows 2000 machine
> to a new Windows 2003 machine, and at the same time move it into a new
> hosting facility. Now we're experiencing problems with some users
> unable to use SSL to connect via https to our website. I'm not
> completely sure whether it's a problem with IIS, Windows, the firewall
> (a Cisco PIX) or the hosting facility, but I thought I'd start with
> the former and try to eliminate those as potential causes first.
>
> The website is at http://www.lovetts.co.uk and also at
> https://www.lovetts.co.uk
> . Some of our clients have no problem using the https version.
> However, others get an Internet Explorer 'page cannot be displayed'
> when they try to access the SSL version. This seems to rule out a
> certificate issue, as otherwise no-one would be able to see the site.
> To be sure, I've had the certificate reissued and reinstalled.
>
> The IIS6 logs don't show anything at all, and our firewall simply logs
> a TCP reset, indicating either the client or the server dropped the
> connection.
>
> The clients experiencing problems have a mix of operating systems
> (Windows 2000 and XP mostly) and a variety of IE versions (mainly 6 or
> 7) so there doesn't appear to be a common link there.
>
> Has anyone seen anything like this before? Any ideas? Also, if there
> is anyone that can't get to https://www.lovetts.co.uk and doesn't mind
> doing a bit of diagnostic work (traceroutes, MTU checking, etc) then
> I'd be grateful if they could reply or email me.
>
> Andrew

 

[Andrew Dancy]

Re: Intermittent SSL connection problems with IIS6 on Windows 2003 R2SP2

Re: Intermittent SSL connection problems with IIS6 on Windows 2003 R2SP2

On 25 Sep, 22:20, "Anthony [MVP]" <anth...@no-reply.com> wrote:
> Andrew,
> The certificate looks fine. Both sites open fine from here.
>
> If I disable javascript I don't get a menu. You seem to be using MenuMachine
> for Adobe GoLive.
>

Correct. We outsourced the design to a third-party and that's
obviously the tool he used to generate the menu. It's not a bad meny
system - better than some I've used in the past! The lack of a non-
javascript menu is down to laziness on my part - something on the ever
increasing to-do list!

> Are you saying that those people who can't view the https default page can
> always view the http default page, or is it something more than that?

Correct. Everyone can see it over http but some people can't see it
over https (but can still see it via http)

>
> For people who fail over https, do you know if it still fails when they add
> you to their trusted sites? I am also wondering if it has something to do
> with proxy servers.
>

That was one of my thoughts - I'm trying to arrange for a client to
give me a ring so I can try things like Trusted Sites, proxy servers,
etc. I just wondered in the meantime if anyone had seen anything like
this before.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Andrew