Most webmasters and web hosts who use WHMCS would have seen this error: WHMCS connection timed out

It is quite common and is usually caused by firewall restrictions.

However, as part of our Server Management Services for online service providers and website owners, we have seen several other causes for this error.

Today we’ll go through the top causes and fixes for the WHMCS connection time out error.

What causes WHMCS connection timed out error?

Connection time out error typically indicates that a connection request sent to another server was not processed within the timeout limit set by the device. This could happen while accessing websites in the browser, performing a script etc.

Different scenarios can trigger this error in WHMCS. This varies from adding servers to creating an account. The possible reasons for WHMCS time out error include firewall restrictions and DNS issues.

Firewall Restriction triggers WHMCS connection timed out error

The recent support request that we received said the client was unable to access the domain register panel. It showed the error:

RegisterDomain/EPP: Error connecting to tls://epp.xxxxx.xxx:700: Connection timed out (code 110)

As stated earlier firewall restriction is the most common reason for connection time out error. The first step in troubleshooting is to ensure that the port through which connection attempts occur is open in the firewall.

As this was a WHM environment , our Support Engineers instantly cross-checked that the CSF configuration file to confirm if port 700 is open.

#grep TCP_IN /etc/csf/csf.conf

#grep TCP_OUT /etc/csf/csf.conf

The commands above can provide an idea of the server ports opened for inbound and outbound connection. If not opened, we can add them to the configuration file by just opening it with a file editor.

#vi /etc/csf/csf.conf

Then add the port number to the list of ports open ports. Finally, restart the CSF service.

#csf -r

Similarly,  in iptables environment  the commands below will help to fix the error:

#iptables -L //to list the rules

#iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport xxxx -j ACCEPT //to open port xxxx

#service iptables save

It is equally important to ensure that the IP address of the server is not blocked in the receiver end.

DNS propagation delay triggers WHMCS connection timed out error

A different scenario where we noticed the connection time out error is while adding a server to WHMCS. The error we noticed was:

Curl error: [7] Failed to connect to xxxxxxxx.com port xxxx: Connection timed out.

The issue here was a little bit different from the regular firewall blocks. Here,xxxxxxxx.com was the hostname of the server.

The A record for the hostname was still under propagation as it was added recently. Hence WHMCS was unable to identify the IP address and the connection was timing out.

There is not much to do here except reducing the TTL value for the record. One completing the DNS propagation the error would get fixed by itself.

[Need help to fix connection time out error in WHMCS? We are available 24×7.]

Conclusion

In short, Firewall restrictions generally triggers the WHMCS connection timed out error. It can be triggered also by some alternate reasons. Today we discussed different reasons for this error and how our Support Engineers fix it.