Any non-secure URL getting error: err_connection_refused

We’ve been experiencing some odd behaviour with URLs that I haven’t seen before and now thoroughly scratching my head!

So one Edge (Chromium), IE and Chrome, when any URL is used without the protocol or subdomain i.e. bbc.co.uk, this doesn’t load the page with error: err_connection_refused

If the website supports it, if HTTPS is defined, the page loads fine. I.e. https://bbc.co.uk

Any non-secure HTTP site doesn’t load at all. Same error: err_connection_refused

We also have an ERP system that uses URLs to look up currency rates. It was getting an error, which was cleared when our database admin defined HTTPS:// as a prefix.

We use Forcepoint websense as a web content filter and have ongoing support with them, but I think they’re struggling to understand the issue to the point where they don’t think it’s their product at fault.

This is affecting all machines on prem, including any remote clients on VPN.

FYI, I’ve also posted this to SpiceWorks.

Any ideas?