Problem connecting to external web service from Amazon EC2 instance

Question

I'm trying to access https://test.httpapi.com webservice from one of my Amazon EC2 instances running Basic Amazon Linux AMI. This is the output of the nc command:

[root@ec2-instance]# nc -v test.httpapi.com 80
nc: connect to test.httpapi.com port 80 (tcp) failed: No route to host
[root@ec2-instance]# nc -v test.httpapi.com 443
nc: connect to test.httpapi.com port 443 (tcp) failed: No route to host
[root@ec2-instance]# nc -v test.httpapi.com 22
nc: connect to test.httpapi.com port 22 (tcp) failed: Connection refused

So, I get 'no route to host' when I try ports 80 or 443, but 'connection refused' when I try ssh port 22 (which is expected).

However, if I try from my local machine (running Ubuntu linux), I can successfully connect to ports 80 and 443:

me@my-laptop$ nc -v test.httpapi.com 80
Connection to test.httpapi.com 80 port [tcp/www] succeeded!
me@my-laptop$ nc -v test.httpapi.com 443
Connection to test.httpapi.com 443 port [tcp/https] succeeded!
me@my-laptop$ nc -v test.httpapi.com 22
nc: connect to test.httpapi.com port 22 (tcp) failed: Connection refused

iptables is disabled on the EC2 instance.

What could be the problem here?

Answer 1

The problem isn't the EC2-instance. I'm also unable to connect to the host:

MacBook-Pro-van-Bart:~ ikbenbart$ nc -v test.httpapi.com 80
nc: connect to test.httpapi.com port 80 (tcp) failed: Connection refused
MacBook-Pro-van-Bart:~ ikbenbart$ nc -v test.httpapi.com 443
nc: connect to test.httpapi.com port 443 (tcp) failed: Connection refused
MacBook-Pro-van-Bart:~ ikbenbart$ nc -v test.httpapi.com 22
nc: connect to test.httpapi.com port 22 (tcp) failed: Connection refused

The host you are trying to connect to is 67.15.184.38 for me:

MacBook-Pro-van-Bart:~ ikbenbart$ dig test.httpapi.com

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> test.httpapi.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 46683
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;test.httpapi.com.      IN  A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
test.httpapi.com.   28116   IN  A   67.15.184.38

;; Query time: 9 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.220.52#53(192.168.220.52)
;; WHEN: Mon Jun 13 13:56:28 2011
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 50

But this points to an other host:

MacBook-Pro-van-Bart:~ ikbenbart$ host 67.15.184.38
38.184.15.67.in-addr.arpa is an alias for 38.184.15.67.in-addr.ev1.opticaljungle.com.
38.184.15.67.in-addr.ev1.opticaljungle.com domain name pointer qmail-d.directi.com.

If possible, take a look at the settings you did for 67.15.184.38.