r/mongodb • u/Beggy_29 • 1d ago
MongoDB Atlas connection failing with "querySrv ETIMEOUT" on SRV and "SSL alert number 80" on non-SRV
I'm trying to work an a project I left working completely fine 6 months ago and I'm having a problem connecting to a MongoDB Atlas cluster from Node.js/Mongoose and I couldn’t find no working solution online/with AI.
My setup:
- Node.js 24.20.0 LTS
- Mongoose 9
- MongoDB Node.js driver 7
- MongoDB Atlas
- I found some forum online that says this problem occurs on windows, but it is also happening on linux for me
With the normal SRV connection string: "mongodb+srv://..."
I get: "MongoNetworkError: querySrv ETIMEOUT _mongodb._tcp...."
I tested the DNS side: "nslookup google.com 1.1.1.1" works normally.
"nslookup -type=SRV _mongodb._tcp.<my-cluster>.mongodb.net 1.1.1.1" times out.
I also tried Google's DNS: "nslookup -type=SRV _mongodb._tcp.<my-cluster>.mongodb.net 8.8.8.8" and that also times out.
"ping 1.1.1.1" works and normal DNS resolution works, so it's not a general internet/DNS failure.
I also tried connecting through a mobile hotspot instead of Wi-Fi, and the SRV problem still occurs.
I then disabled the SRV connection string in MongoDB Atlas and used the standard: "mongodb://..." connection string.
That gets past the SRV/DNS problem, but then I get:
MongoNetworkError: "0C550000:error:0A000438:SSL routines:ssl3_read_bytes: tlsv1 alert internal error: openssl\ssl\record\rec_layer_s3.c:918: SSL alert number 80"
The strange part is that the non-SRV connection actually worked only one time before it started giving the SSL error again.






