Discovered that the problem is that DNN is not loading default.aspx.  The site works if I specify default.aspx, but not if I use the domain name alone.

This sounds like a friendly url issue. Do you use an old version of DNN? Because I have not heard about these kind of issues in years.

did you check default documents setting for your IIS website?

Thank you both for your responses. The version of DNN is the latest (v. 09.10.02 (0)).  I've implemented DNN for many years since version 5 and never had this issue. The default document is correct. You can test it for yourself by going to the following links:

https://ketologger.online   (will revert to http)

https://ketologger.online/default.aspx (will remain in https)

This is just weird and I have no explanation for it.

 

 

As a workaround, my preferred approach is an IIS rewrite rule that enforces https. Then there is no need for DNN to do anything; it won't ever see an http request.

I read about that option and I will probably try it, but it just doesn't feel right. I can live with a workaround, but never feel great about it.

How interesting - the different perspectives people have.

It feels totally right to me that a web application (ie DNN) does not care about how the requests are delivered to it. It just processes whatever arrives.

So keeping knowledge of https out of DNN seems right to me.

Good luck in finding a solution you are comfortable with.

fair enough, but DNN does provide an option to force SSL, so surely they thought about this need. Plus there's the fact that this has never happened with any previous implementation of web software I've used, DNN or otherwise.  I think there may be an issue in this current release.

I implemented the url rewrite and it works, so problem solved though the mystery remains in my mind.  Thanks all.