The connection with the server was terminated abnormally

[TerryO]

I’m getting this error every time I try to send a transaction to my sandbox account: “The connection with the server was terminated abnormally”. The server is not using TLS 1.0 or 1.1 and when I use the production server with a test CC number it is sending back the invalid card message so it is working on the production server but not the sandbox. The sandbox should be sending a test approval response back.

Anyone have any ideas why this could be happening?

[NexusSoftware]

What server environment and application language are you posting to the API from Linux or Windows, what version?

[TerryO]

Windows server using classic ASP XML posts - been working fine for years until I started using the same code on a different page on the site. The production server is processing real credit cards fine - it's just the sandbox that gives me this error.

[NexusSoftware]

The Sandbox currently only accepts TLS 1.2 connections. For Classic ASP, try running the following:

<%
Set objHttp = Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP.6.0")
objHttp.open "GET", "https://howsmyssl.com/a/check", False
objHttp.Send
Response.Write objHttp.responseText 
Set objHttp = Nothing 
%>

[TerryO]

Response says TLS 1.0 (below) but when I check the site with SSLLabs.com it says TLS 1.0 = no, TLS 1.1 = no and TLS 1.2 = yes. and my server tech tells me TLS 1 and 1.1 are disabled

{"given_cipher_suites":["TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA"
"TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA"
"TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA"
"TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA"
"TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA"
"TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA"
"TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA"
"TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA"
"TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA"]
"ephemeral_keys_supported":true
"session_ticket_supported":false
"tls_compression_supported":false
"unknown_cipher_suite_supported":false
"beast_vuln":false
"able_to_detect_n_minus_one_splitting":true
"insecure_cipher_suites":{}
"tls_version":"TLS 1.0"
"rating":"Bad"}

[NexusSoftware]

ASP relies on Schannel for secure communications. Is your Windows version > 2008? If so, check out Microsoft's article : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3140245/update-to-enable-tls-1-1-and-tls-1-2-as-a-default-s...

By the way, the production API will be transitioning to TLS 1.2 connections only soon, as well.

[TerryO]

I will have my tech check this. Yes, I know the production environment is changing soon too - another reason to get this fixed ASAP.

Thanks for your help, by-the-way!

[TerryO · Accepted solution]

Applying the patch on the 2008 server did not fix the problem. So, we moved the site to a 2102 server and all seems to be working now.

Thank you for all the help!

[NexusSoftware]

Glad to hear you got it working. Just for your information, Windows 2008 servers can be configured to work with TLS 1.2 connections, we have enabled many of them.

[SodaBob]

When you say you have configured Windows 2008 servers to work with TLS 1.2 I assume you mean Windows 2008 R2, correct?  According to everything I've seen thus far, Windows 2008 "standard" cannot support TLS 1.2 - or am I missing something?