Nginx request times out from browser, but it works through postman or curl

Question

I can successfully http to domain though postman and curl:

http://bstevens.dev
curl -I http://bstevens.dev

Background:

• I followed the Digital Ocean Ubuntu initial set up and nginx install documents.

• I have triple checked steps, permission settings and file ownerships, it lines up with the docs.

• Only one change to /etc/nginx/nginx.conf, as suggested by docs

• server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;

• I have not installed Let's encrypt.

• My droplet is ubuntu 20.04

• I followed setup directions for ufw

$ sudo ufw status verbose
Status: active
Logging: on (low)
Default: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing), disabled (routed)
New profiles: skip

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
22/tcp (OpenSSH)           ALLOW IN    Anywhere                  
80/tcp (Nginx HTTP)        ALLOW IN    Anywhere                  
80/tcp                     ALLOW IN    Anywhere                  
22/tcp (OpenSSH (v6))      ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)             
80/tcp (Nginx HTTP (v6))   ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)             
80/tcp (v6)                ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)   

Any suggestions would be most appreciated!

Answer 1

It looks like this is happening because the Browser is trying to access the site via https. If you open the Network tab you can see this:

There is an example here that may be applicable. I think you should approach this as understanding what is causing the Browser to try to connect via https.

Answer 2

Resolved

I have resolved this issue, it was the domain name: bstevens.dev Any domain name ending in .dev uses the HSTS protocol.

HSTS is HTTP Strict Transport Security: a way for sites to elect to always use HTTPS.

I was searching nginx and ufw for this directive but discovered it is built in to .dev

Every .dev domain is on the HSTS preload list, which makes HTTPS required on all connections.

Thanks to howard-roark for confirming that browsers were seeing the HTTPS protocol for bstevens.dev and pointing me in the right direction with HSTS.