Problem when hosting with incoming https traffic

[rlyness]

I've hosted a football guessing website for a number of years on a dedicated server in my house (just for my friends for some fun).  I've had no problems until a few weeks ago when I renewed my contract with EE broadband.

Now, I am getting weird intermitting problems with some of the guys trying to connect to my website.  When they're on their home internet (different providers), they get a "Site cannot be reached ERR_TIMED_OUT" error - but when they drop off wifi and go on mobile internet, it magically just works.  To add, sometimes when I restart the router it suddenly works for a while then stops working again.

I've got a dynamic DNS set on my router so I know it's not a problem with routing.  It just, for some reason is not responding while on their home WIFI.  Also, it's not all users - some can access fine both on home WIFI and mobile.  It only seems to be https traffic affected, coming through on http fine all of the time.  My certs are valid, my port forwarding hasn't changed for years so I know all that is setup fine.

I've done a full factory reset of the router, I've temporarily hosted the site on a different machine on the network.  I'm all out of ideas.  Anyone had any similar experience?

[bobpullen]

@rlyness - shot in the dark but I wonder if it's something to do with your public IP address. If you haven't tried already, then might be worth powering your router off for 30 mins or so to see if acquiring a different IP address has any bearing on things.

Nothing to lose I guess.

[rlyness]

@bobpullen will give that a go this evening. Thank you

[rlyness]

This is still an issue for me

Is it possible to buy my own router and use it with my EE broabband?

[XRaySpeX]

Yes, as long as you don't have Digital Voice (DV) from EE when the supplied EE router must be used as the 1st downstream from the ONT.

[bobpullen]

@rlyness - relevant info here.

If you do go that route, I'd be very interested in the outcome as you haven't changed anything outside of the recontracting have you?

[rlyness]

Thanks a lot @bobpullen.

Absolutely nothing changed at all.  I've hosted this site for many years (having lived in different houses).  I work in IT and I'm pretty good at debugging and problem solving but this one has stumped me.  It's so strange that it works for a while after a restart and then suddenly stops.

May speak to EE tech and see if they have any suggestions and if not, may just order a new router

[rlyness]

Sorry to resurrect this again @bobpullen but we've been doing some testing and think we've found a pattern.  It seems to be on Android phones and on home wifi (not mobile data).  We've tested a load of devices and came up with the following:

Work iPhone:
Work iPhone Connected to data:
Chrome: works
Safari: works

Work iPhone Connected to WiFi:
Chrome: works
Safari: works

Work iPhone Connected to Personal Android hotspot (connected to WiFi):
Chrome: works
Safari: works

Work iPhone Connected to Windows laptop hot spot (connected on WiFi):
Chrome: works
Edge: works

Personal Android phone:
Personal Android Connected to data:
Chrome: works
Duck Duck Go: works

Personal Android Connected to WiFi:
Chrome: does not work
Duck Duck Go: does not work

Personal Android Connected to work iPhone hotspot (connected to data):
Chrome: works
Duck Duck Go: works

Personal Android Connected to Windows laptop hot spot (connected on WiFi):
Chrome: does not work
Duck Duck Go: does not work

Windows Laptop
Windows laptop Connected to WiFi:
Chrome: works
Edge: works

Windows laptop Connected to work iPhone hotspot (connected to data):
Chrome: works
Edge: works

Windows laptop connected to Personal Android (connected on WiFi):
Chrome: works
Edge: works

The common denominator is Android connecting via WiFi

[bobpullen]

@rlyness - presumably the Whapi.cloud service you use isn't Android though? Are those remotely all on Android devices too?

Any possibility that there's any VPN-esque software running on affected devices? What about the data saver and private DNS toggles in Android's network and Internet settings; do either of those settings have any bearing on things?

You can probably tell I'm fast running out of ideas! 😉

[rlyness]

Hi @bobpullen 

I'm not sure of the software behind whapi.  We tried some "private DNS" settings and MAC address allocation settings on the WIFI settings of the affected phones and didn't have much luck.  Changing the MAC address setting made the site work for one request then fail after again lol.. 

I spoke to EE tech today and apparently I have a router from a known 2024 bad batch.  Apparently showing loads of "health check" warnings on their side.  New router coming on Tuesday.  Let's hope that solves my problems

[rlyness · Accepted solution]

Hi @bobpullen 

Final update.  New router been running for 24 hours now without issue so seems to have solved this problem.  I guess dodgy router all this time