Local server accessible via https with :80, but not without

Question

I can access https://svnserver:80/ locally via my web browser, but when I remove the :80 it doesn't work at all.... any ideas?

UPDATE

When I go to https://svnserver:443/ it says:

SSL received a record that exceeded the maximum permissible length.

(Error code: ssl_error_rx_record_too_long)

I followed the default instructions for creating a private ssh key on Ubuntu via the official docs...

UPDATE

My ports.conf

NameVirtualHost *:80
Listen 80

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    # SSL name based virtual hosts are not yet supported, therefore no
    # NameVirtualHost statement here
    Listen 443
</IfModule>

netstat -lp results

Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 *:www                   *:*                     LISTEN      5285/apache2    
tcp        0      0 *:https                 *:*                     LISTEN      5285/apache2    
tcp        0      0 *:22                    *:*                     LISTEN      2351/sshd       
tcp6       0      0 [::]:22                 [::]:*                  LISTEN      2351/sshd       
udp        0      0 *:bootpc                *:*                                 2239/dhclient3  
Active UNIX domain sockets (only servers)
Proto RefCnt Flags       Type       State         I-Node   PID/Program name    Path
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     14927    5288/apache2        /var/run/apache2/cgisock.5285
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     5032     2114/dbus-daemon    /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     4857     2039/acpid          /var/run/acpid.socket

Answer 1

For some reason this svn server has https configured on port 80. The browser needs to be told that it's looking for an https server on port 80/TCP, that's why you need to specify both https and :80.

Background:

Standard web traffic goes over port 80/TCP Standard https traffic goes over port 443/TCP

Most web browsers assume that unqualified URLs are standard http connections and send them to port 80. Web servers that require https will often do a redirect (like a 403) to send the browser to the HTTPS version of the page, however the web browser also assumes that HTTPS traffic happens on 443/TCP. HTTPS traffic on non-standard ports must be specified in the URL otherwise the browser will try to send it to 443/TCP.

To reiterate, if there's no HTTP page redirecting your browser to the proper HTTPS content and the HTTPS content is on a non-standard port you'll always need to specify both the protocol and the port.

Update

I looked over at this question: Setting up https with a self-signed certificate on Apache

And the answers may address your configuration issue. It sounds like the HTTP may be listening on 443 and the HTTPS on 80

Answer 2

That's b/c https is port 443 and port 80 is http. I would use wireshark to see if it is indeed using https or http when forcing traffic to port 80.

Beyond that it's a matter of getting your Apache/IIS configuration setup correctly.

Answer 3

I've realized now that the reason I can do this is because my local linux machine that I'm browsing the site on has record of svnserver since I have ssh'd to it before. :doh:!

SSL is also throwing an error when I change :80 to :443 meaning that 80 is not encrypting the data even though it's showing https and throwing no errors.