101 · Question #629
A user is trying to access a website using the URL https://1.1.1.1/ The website fails to load. The user can access other websites. Given the packet capture above, what is the most likely issue?
The correct answer is D. The remote server is actively rejecting the connection. When a server sends TCP RST segments in response to a connection attempt, it is actively rejecting the connection rather than being unreachable or timing out.
Question
A user is trying to access a website using the URL https://1.1.1.1/ The website fails to load. The user can access other websites. Given the packet capture above, what is the most likely issue?
Options
- AThe remote server is not responding because it is down
- BThe client machine is not 'connected to the internet
- CThe client machine's DNS is configured incorrectly
- DThe remote server is actively rejecting the connection
How the community answered
(42 responses)- A5% (2)
- B21% (9)
- C12% (5)
- D62% (26)
Why each option
When a server sends TCP RST segments in response to a connection attempt, it is actively rejecting the connection rather than being unreachable or timing out.
A server that is down or unreachable would produce no response or ICMP unreachable messages, not TCP RST segments - RST requires an active host to generate and send the response.
The user successfully accesses other websites in the same session, which proves general internet connectivity is functional and rules out a client-side network failure.
The URL uses a literal IP address (1.1.1.1) rather than a hostname, so DNS resolution is never attempted and a misconfigured DNS server would have no effect on this request.
A packet capture showing TCP RST (reset) segments returned from the destination indicates the remote host is reachable but is explicitly refusing the connection on that port - this is active rejection. Because the user accesses an IP directly (bypassing DNS) and can reach other sites, the issue is isolated to this specific server's refusal to accept the TLS/HTTPS session on port 443.
Concept tested: TCP RST flag and active connection rejection
Source: https://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked/ChAdvTCPAnalysis.html
Topics
Community Discussion
No community discussion yet for this question.