Connecting to a HTTP URL over port 443

Question

Is it possible to connect to a HTTP URL (for example, http://www.asdfg.com) over port 443?

Or only HTTPS URLs (for example, https://www.asdfg.com) can be connected through port 443?

I have a proxy server configured to allow only through port 443. When I try to connect to a HTTP URL, I get a 504 Gateway Timeout error.

If I change the "http" to "https" in the URL and try to connect without proxy, I get the message "Requested resource not found".

What is the reason for this behavior?

(There are a lot of similiar questions here but mine is a very straight forward one.)

Solution 1

You could try http://mydomain.com:443/ which would hopefully force HTTP traffic over port 443.

However, you might find if your proxy is set up[ to only allow port 443, it also only allows HTTPS traffic in which case the above would not work.

Solution 2

Port can be reassigned to confuse people etc., so if you have a plain http server actually listening on port 443 then your http url should work, and vice versa. However the restriction you are facing may be more than just the port. Since ssl and http are different protocols, it is trivial to figure out that the packets are not http and your connection is thus blocked. It is probably easier to do ssl tunneling if your http traffic in this case.

Solution 3

The ports are merely "Assigned standards". The determining factor is the server software and the client software.

Comments

[SpikETidE]

So, is it possible to configure 443 to allow http urls ?

[dc5553]

You can serve up http on literally any port you desire ports 1 - 65535 but if this server is serving https on 443 and you try to go http on 443 it is a no-go

[Quinten]

Phil is correct. https ://standardhttponlysite won't work. It tells the browser to try using ssl AND do so on port 443. http :// standard:443 would work. But only if the remote site is configured to serve unencrypted traffic over that port. Arbitrary Internet sites won't be.