Vscode-remote-release: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send

[roblourens]

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-release/issues/78#issuecomment-571002756

Sometimes downloading the remote server on Windows fails with an error message like

Failed to download & extract vscode-server. - The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send.

Seems to be a cert issue because one user reports that the SkipCertificateCheck property fixes it.

[daniel-liuzzi]

This seems to be more of a protocol issue than a cert issue. On my Windows Server 2016 box [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol returns Ssl3, Tls.
According to SSL Server Test, _update.code.visualstudio.com_ supports TLS 1.2 only, which would explain the connection refused.

This can be confirmed in PowerShell by trying to connect to https://update.code.visualstudio.com/ before and after turning TLS 1.2 on:

TLS 1.2 off

> Invoke-WebRequest https://update.code.visualstudio.com/

Invoke-WebRequest : The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send.
At line:1 char:1
+ Invoke-WebRequest https://update.code.visualstudio.com/
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.HttpWebRequest:HttpWebRequest) [Invoke-WebRequest], WebException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebCmdletWebResponseException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeWebRequestCommand

TLS 1.2 on

> [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12

> Invoke-WebRequest https://update.code.visualstudio.com/

StatusCode        : 200
StatusDescription : OK
Content           : Hello from VS Code! 👋
RawContent        : HTTP/1.1 200 OK
                    request-context: appId=cid-v1:8109e553-6232-492a-afca-b78cea9b431c
                    Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000
                    X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
                    X-Source-Commit: 5b1e6aaf6afec2feec21...
Forms             : {}
Headers           : {[request-context, appId=cid-v1:8109e553-6232-492a-afca-b78cea9b431c], [Strict-Transport-Security,
                    max-age=31536000], [X-Content-Type-Options, nosniff], [X-Source-Commit,
                    5b1e6aaf6afec2feec218a378676e943da8f7885]...}
Images            : {}
InputFields       : {}
Links             : {}
ParsedHtml        : System.__ComObject
RawContentLength  : 24

[jsg2021]

~Is there a simple way to turn it on in a persistent way?~
I applied the registry keys in this doc and it works!

[jsg2021]

I’m wondering if the error reported to the user could suggest the solution here?

[roblourens]

This should be fixed in the nightly extension now, please try it out

[jsg2021]

I was looking for the commits, but I can't find the code :} I guess this part isn't out in the open.

[roblourens]

Yeah the extension is not open source

[daniel-liuzzi]

Tried the latest nightly and everything works perfectly now. Thanks a lot @roblourens !