SSL Connection / Connection Reset with IISExpress
I am summarizing the steps that helped me in resolving this issue:
- Make sure the SSL port range(used by IIS express) is between 44300-44398
During installation, IIS Express uses Http.sys to reserve ports 44300 through 44399 for SSL use. This enables standard users (without elevated privileges) of IISExpress to configure and use SSL. For more details on this refer here
- Run the below command as administrator in Command prompt. This will output the SSL Certificate bindings in the computer. From this list, find out the certificate used by IIS express for the corresponding port :
netsh http show sslcert > sslcert.txt
- Look for the below items in the sslcert.txt (in my case the IIS express was running at port 44300)
IP:port : 0.0.0.0:44300
Certificate Hash : eb380ba6bd10fb4f597cXXXXXXXXXX
Application ID : {214124cd-d05b-4309-XXX-XXXXXXX}
- Also look in the IIS express management console (RUN (Ctrl+R) -> inetmgr.exe) and find if the corresponding certificate exists in the Server Certificates
(Click on the ServerRoot -> under section IIS () -> Open the Server Certificates)
- If your localhost by default uses a different certificate other than the one listed in Step 3, continue with the below steps
netsh http delete sslcert ipport=0.0.0.0:44300
netsh http add sslcert ipport=0.0.0.0:44300 certhash=New_Certificate_Hash_without_space appid={214124cd-d05b-4309-XXX-XXXXXXX}
The New_Certificate_Hash will be your default certificate tied-up with your localhost (That we found in step 4) or the one which you want to add as a new certificate.
P.S. Thank you for your answer uosɐſ (which helped me in resolving this issue)
If you're using URLRewrite to force SSL connections in your web.config, it's probably rewriting your localhost address to force https. If debugging with SSL enabled isn't important to you and you're using URLRewrite, consider adding <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="localhost" negate="true" /> into your web.config file's rewrite section. It will stop the rewrite for any localhost addresses but leave it in place in a production environment.
If you're not using URLRewrite or need to debug using SSL, http://www.hanselman.com/blog/WorkingWithSSLAtDevelopmentTimeIsEasierWithIISExpress.aspx might help. It's for VS2010, but should suffice for VS2013 as well.
I was getting ERR_CONNECTION_RESET because my Visual Studio 2013/IIS Express configured app port number was NOT in the range :44300-:44398. (I don't recall having to dismiss any warnings to get out of that range.) Changing the port number to something in this range is all I had to do to make it work.
I noticed this after reviewing the netsh http show sslcert > sslcert.txt output and something clicking with stuff I read recently about the port numbers.
Make sure to remove any previous 'localhost' certificates as those could conflict with the one generated by IIS Express. I had this same error (ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR), and it took me many hours to finally figure it out after trying out many many "solutions". My mistake was that I had created my own 'localhost' certificate and there were two of them. I had to delete both and have IIS Express recreate it.
Here is how you can check for and remove 'localhost' certificate:
- On Start, type → mmc.exe
- File → Add/Remove Snap-in...
- Select Certificates → Add> → Computer account → Local computer
- Check under Certificates > Personal > Certificates
- Make sure the localhost certificate that exist has a friendly name "IIS Express Development Certificate". If not, delete it. Or if multiple, delete all.
On Visual Studio, select project and under property tab, enable SSL=true. Save, Build and Run. IIS Express will generate a new 'localhost' certificate.
Note: If it doesn't work, try these: make sure to disable IIS Express on VS project and stopping all running app on it prior to removing 'localhost' certificate. Also, you can go to 'control panel > programs' and Repair IIS Express.