HTTPS with port number not able to access

Question

I face the issue below. www.abc.com:10181 - can't access the webpage https:\www.abc.com:10181 - able to access the webpage

I need to manually key in the "https://", if not there will not able to view the webpage.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Web browser assumes you want HTTP connection. It is said, that default address scheme for web browser is "http://", it is always prepended if you have not specified it explicitly. Even just "domain.name:443" (with explicit https port, but without scheme prefix) will be assumed HTTP. Try google.com:443 and see how it works.

Web browser only starts an HTTPS connection if you specify that manually, via url scheme prefix "https://".

How "connection reset" appears on protocol mismatch is other question.

HTTPS server expects TLS ClientHello on a raw port instead of HTTP request. If HTTP request is coming to a HTTPS-enabled port it is considered a malformed TLS ClientHello and connection is terminated by the server.

Web browser, on other hand, thinks in terms of HTTP protocol. This connection reset is unexpected and incorrect in terms of HTTP protocol. All web browser could do is to say server has closed a connection unexpectedly.

I feel, automatically switching to HTTPS in this case is infeasible, as it will mislead user and could actually harm security. And why it has to be HTTPS, why not FTP, GOPHER, IRC, IMAP, or any other protocol?

In the end, everything works like it should be. If you want HTTPS on default or non-default port, you must always specify "https://" in the beginning.