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I've found that the iPad, using its Safari browser can't access web pages that include a port number in the URL:

http://www.example.com:8080/

or even

http://www.example.com:80/

In either case, the browser displays a message stating "Cannot Open Page, Safari cannot open the page because the network connection was lost."

I understand that port 80 is the default port for the HTTP protocol (443 for HTTPS) and that usually it's omitted from URL's as most (all?) browsers know to use the default (including Safari when running on Mac OS).

Before you ask, yes the sites are up and accessible (obviously the links above are just examples of syntax) and other devices (non-Apple phones, pads and laptops) can access the site - there is no issue with 3G / network coverage etc.

Is this a bug with the iPad - or is it something that's configurable?

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  • Which IOS version are you using? Works fine here on 4.1 (tested with giss.tv:8000). http means port 80 unless otherwise specified, so :80 is indeed redundant, but it doesn't hurt and is not that uncommon (often web servers insert it on redirects).
    – Ingmar Hupp
    Commented Sep 1, 2011 at 17:07
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    It's also worth pointing out that WebKit (and therefore Safari on all platforms) blocks a few ports by default, but 80 and 8080 are certainly not in that list.
    – Ingmar Hupp
    Commented Sep 1, 2011 at 17:11
  • The 8080 link isn't working (not even on Firefox) but the 80 is working fine on iOS 5.0.1.
    – Mahm00d
    Commented Apr 7, 2012 at 21:03
  • I regularly use custom ports in MobileSafari such as 42300, 8080, and 4430. Both http and https. Never had a problem on an iPad 3, iPhone 4, or iPhone 5.
    – Elliott
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 8:41
  • @ElliottB The issue was only apparent on the iPad 2 - we never got to the bottom of the exact cause, but seemed network carrier related as local URL's worked fine.
    – Michael
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 9:50

1 Answer 1

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You might want to exclude 'www' if possible. This can cause the page not being available as www mainly is pointing to port 80. If that doesn't work it might not be an Apple issue, and SuperUser might be a better place to ask the question.

Or you could set a redirect on a url pointing it to the right location with matching portnumber.

I can run different sites with portnumbers in it, as stated in the comments above. Example: Synology NAS port 5000, works on my iPad.

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  • "www" is just a host name. It has nothing to do with protocol or port number, either explicit or implicit.
    – pseudocoder
    Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 21:16

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