Site: helpful-peony-b1414d.netlify.app Custom domain: themidlandsafricanchoir.co.uk Domain registrar: Wix (nameservers: ns2.wixdns.net / ns3.wixdns.net)
Problem: The site was working fine with the custom domain + SSL. Then the SSL certificate stopped working (ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR) and Netlify started showing “themidlandsafricanchoir.co.uk doesn’t appear to be served by Netlify.”
What we discovered: The domain had a Netlify DNS zone set up, but the nameservers were never pointed to Netlify’s nameservers — they remained on Wix. This created a conflict where Netlify expected to control DNS but didn’t actually have authority. This was likely causing the SSL renewal to fail.
What we did:
Deleted the Netlify DNS zone (to switch to external DNS)
Re-added the domain to the site — it’s now listed as Primary domain without Netlify DNS
Confirmed Wix DNS records are correct:
A record → 75.2.60.5
A record → 99.83.190.102
CNAME www → helpful-peony-b1414d.netlify.app
Confirmed DNS resolves correctly: ping returns 99.83.190.102 (Netlify’s IP)
Current issue: Despite the domain resolving to the correct Netlify IP, curl -s -v http://themidlandsafricanchoir.co.uk returns Server: nginx instead of Server: Netlify. This means Netlify’s load balancer is receiving the request but not routing it to our site. The SSL certificate cannot be renewed because of this.
What we need: Netlify’s internal routing to recognize that themidlandsafricanchoir belongs to site helpful-peony-b1414d. We suspect stale internal state from the deleted DNS zone is preventing proper routing.