HTTPS isn't working when I search my site

Support
1

PLEASE help us help you by writing a good post!

Hi,

I am trying to help a friend with their site so I don’t know how they created it, but it is only accessible on http and not https. I checked through Domain management > https and it says Your project has HTTPS enabled. However if you search https://theadvertisingboard.org or https://www.theadvertisingboard.org I am getting

This site can’t be reached

The web page at https://www.theadvertisingboard.org/ might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.

ERR_SOCKET_NOT_CONNECTED

The only way to access it is through www.theadvertisingboard.org which I don’t want, I want it to always force it to open on HTTPS, I just want this done through the UI on netlify I don’t want to have to edit things in the code.

My netlify site name is polite-khapse-f1f6cc.netlify.app

custom domain www.theadvertisingboard.org

Thank you for your help.

2

Hi there! I was looking into the site, and I’m seeing that https is now enabled. It might be that you have an older version of the site cached in your browser. Have you tried to view it after clearing your cache and cookies? Or perhaps open a new incognito session and try to view it there.

Let us know if after you try that you are still having trouble. Thanks!

3

Hi, thanks for getting back to me, sadly it still isnt working.

i cleared my cache and cookies, when i search it on a normal browser I am still getting the same message as above, and i think it wont let me see because i have a work laptop so some things are blocked, and when i search it on incognito browser i get:

www.theadvertisingboard.org doesn’t support a secure connection with HTTPS

You are seeing this warning because this site does not support HTTPS and you are in Incognito mode. Learn more about this warning

I am not sure why mine is different to what you can see. But it seems like https isn’t working some how.

Thanks

Olivia

4

Hi there!

Upon reading your concern, it sounds like the DNS records for your custom domain theadvertisingboard.org are not configured correctly to point to your Netlify site.

Here are some ways on ensuring your site always forces HTTPS:

  1. Check Your DNS Records

The “This site can’t be reached” error, along with ERR_SOCKET_NOT_CONNECTED, strongly suggests a DNS issue. The www subdomain is likely working because its CNAME record is set correctly, but the root domain (theadvertisingboard.org) is not.

To fix this, go to your domain registrar (e.g., GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.) and ensure your DNS records are configured as follows:

  • For the root domain (theadvertisingboard.org): You need an A record that points to Netlify’s load balancer. The value for this record should be 75.2.60.5.
  • For the www subdomain: You should have a CNAME record pointing to your Netlify site name, which is polite-khapse-f1f6cc.netlify.app.
  1. Force HTTPS in Netlify’s UI

Once your DNS records are correctly pointing to Netlify, you can use the UI to force all traffic to HTTPS without touching any code.

  • Navigate to your site in the Netlify dashboard.
  • Go to Domain management > HTTPS.
  • Click on Force HTTPS or look for a similar toggle.

This will automatically create a redirect rule that sends all visitors from http://your-site.com to https://your-site.com. Since you don’t want to edit the code, this might be the best approach.

I hope this helps.