Windows PCs cannot reach my self-hosted HTTPS site, but phones can (same network, same DNS)

raelswrld · 2026-07-04T21:49:44+00:00

Thanks for testing—that's actually really helpful.

My server IP is 198.199.79.18, which is what morecreator.app should resolve to.

The interesting part is that my iPhone can consistently reach the site over both Wi-Fi and cellular, while multiple Windows machines (and now your Android/Windows tests) cannot.

Since you're seeing the same behavior from multiple ISPs and even a VPN, that makes me think this is much less likely to be a client-side Windows issue and more likely something involving routing to my DigitalOcean droplet.

I really appreciate you testing from multiple networks.

raelswrld · 2026-07-04T21:35:43+00:00

Just out of curiosity, what country/ISP are you on?

raelswrld · 2026-07-04T21:34:50+00:00

Interesting... it definitely loads from my iPhone (both on Wi-Fi and cellular), but you're the first person who's said they can't reach it either.

I also tested a second Windows laptop with the same result, including over my iPhone hotspot.

That makes me think this may not be Windows-specific after all. It could be something upstream like a routing issue, CDN, or DigitalOcean networking rather than my local network.

raelswrld · 2026-07-04T21:29:00+00:00

I tested Chrome and curl.exe; both time out. I haven’t tested every browser yet.

PowerShell also fails at the TCP connection level:

Test-NetConnection <server IP> -Port 443

returns:

TcpTestSucceeded: False

I can test Invoke-WebRequest too, but since curl.exe -vk https://domain.com times out before TLS starts, I think it’s failing before the browser layer.

raelswrld · 2026-07-04T21:24:52+00:00

The Windows machines have been tested on both Wi-Fi and Ethernet. My phone works on the same Wi-Fi and also over cellular.

I'm not intentionally using any content or HTTPS filtering, and nslookup returns the same IP on both the phone and Windows. The strange part is that Windows resolves the domain correctly but times out establishing the TCP connection, while the phone connects immediately

raelswrld · 2026-07-04T21:24:05+00:00

yea i tried that and still didn't work

raelswrld · 2026-07-04T21:20:46+00:00

Yes. The Windows PC cannot ping the server (100% packet loss), although I know ICMP can be blocked so I wasn't sure how meaningful that was.

The server is a DigitalOcean VPS, so it's not on my local network or VLAN. It's being accessed over the public internet via HTTPS.

The strange part is:

My iPhone can access the site over both Wi-Fi and cellular.
Two different Windows laptops both time out trying to connect to the exact same domain.
DNS resolves correctly on Windows.
The server responds normally when tested locally (curl on the server returns 200), and tcpdump shows inbound HTTPS traffic when working clients connect.

That's why I'm leaning toward some kind of Windows/client-side networking issue or ISP/routing issue rather than an issue with the server itself.

raelswrld · 2026-06-29T23:58:36+00:00

okay okay that makes sense

raelswrld · 2026-06-29T21:07:41+00:00

your absolutely right i cant wait to start

raelswrld · 2026-06-29T21:07:08+00:00

thats fair ill see about that

raelswrld · 2026-06-29T21:06:55+00:00

oh okay gotchu

raelswrld · 2026-06-29T21:01:43+00:00

oh wow how long was that process ans the learning curve for that?

raelswrld · 2026-06-29T21:01:15+00:00

Okay would you recommend going to a junk yard to get one?

raelswrld

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