Browsers and web apps unable to connect to some servers via HTTP

My initial issue was that Epic Games Launcher could not get a connection to it's backing service. Being EGL, it provided zero information as to the cause, but that's what Wireshark is for.

Wireshark provided two salient bits of information:
1) the server was resetting the connection (immediately).
2) EGL was connecting via HTTP.


Subsequent investigation determined that:

1) Using (Chrome/Firefox) I cannot connect to the relevant website (download.epicgames.com) via HTTP, but I can connect without issue via HTTPS.

2) No other device in my houshold (an iPhone 6, an Amazon Fire tablet, an IPad Pro) has this issue; all can connect to this site via HTTP.

3) The devices that can connect are all on wi-fi; the problem device (custom build running Windows 7 Pro) is wired.

4) Disabling anti-virus/firewall does not help. Resetting winsock does not help. Rebooting the router and modem does not help. I do not have a proxy.

5) nmap -p 80 download.epicgames.com shows the port is open.

6) I have found several other websites that give me the same behavior, including tomshardware.com, ironically.

That's what I know, and a list of things I've tried. At this point, I am out of ideas and looking for help. Here is an ipconfig /all dump:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Spartan
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : example.com

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : TAP Adapter OAS NDIS 6.0
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-FF-44-5A-D3-24
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : lan1
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : BC-5F-F4-5A-1F-B0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2605:6000:1023:6141::48c(Preferred)
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, September 28, 2019 9:15:39 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, October 05, 2019 6:53:55 PM
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2605:6000:1023:6141:d010:ff5:5973:6309(Preferred)
Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2605:6000:1023:6141:dc50:f244:4d5c:c518(Preferred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::d010:ff5:5973:6309%10(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.140(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, September 28, 2019 9:15:37 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, October 05, 2019 9:15:43 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::1eb0:44ff:fe1a:f85d%10
192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 347889652
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1A-89-B6-FA-BC-5F-F4-5A-1F-B0
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 2000::ff
2000::fe
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
Connection-specific DNS Suffix Search List :
example.com

Ethernet adapter VirtualBox Host-Only Network:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 0A-00-27-00-00-11
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::20b0:3cf8:2e1f:d80c%17(Preferred)
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.216.12(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 436863015
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1A-89-B6-FA-BC-5F-F4-5A-1F-B0
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.lan1:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : lan1
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.{83C2F747-DDC8-4420-8797-3F25D1BD8216}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.{445AD324-4C16-4E15-8B03-999A3ACF2E37}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #4
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Welcome to the forum. All website are being moved over to https and a lot dont repond now to http

But it does respond to HTTP; just not from this one machine. Maybe I failed to make this clear in my post, but I was able to connect with three other devices via HTTP. Only on my Windows 7 PC do I have to use HTTPS. Further, if HTTPS is a requirement here, then why isn't their own web app using it?

Hi

highly suspect this is because of the Wannacry problem, which uses the smb1 protocol and MS has depracted it - considered a High security flaw.
(EGL not updated??)

Please open programs/features then features (top left)
Is SMB1 showing AND UNticked, if so tick it

or if not present
Enable or Disable SMB1 File Sharing Protocol in Windows | Tutorials

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT ACCEPTED SECURITY POLICY


Roy

Does the problem happen if you use yet another browser from the problematic machine? Or an incognito session with the same browsers?
Are the involved browsers updated?

samuria said:

All website are being moved over to https and a lot dont repond now to http

While it's true that plain text HTTP is already obsolete and most websites are moving to HTTPS, most, if not all of them do respond to plain HTTP, with a redirect to the equivalent HTTPS url together with an HSTS header. Blocking the connections would mean a trouble for usability, so all sane sites just redirect on the insecure connection and do all its business on the secure one.

torchwood said:

highly suspect this is because of the Wannacry problem, which uses the smb1 protocol and MS has depracted it - considered a High security flaw.

That's irrelevant for the web, as HTTP doesn't relies on SMB at all, much less on anything MS-specific. SMB is used mostly for file-sharing on intranets with Windows computers.