Unexpected NodeJS and NPM network behaviour - Kubuntu 24, docker, Virtualbox 7

I was getting ETIMEDOUT when installing packages with nvm 0.40.1, node 22.14.0& npm v10.9.2. Tried multiple fixes that's across the internet and nothing worked! (downgrade, upgrade, cleanup, switching dns, installing Pihole on a machine & using that for DNS).

I wrote a simple script with require('https') to read https://registry.npmjs.org and got a boatload of Aggregate Error with ETIMEDOUT for IP4& ENETUNREACH for IP6 when trying to get any package page eg: https://registry.npmjs.org/data-fns

At same time, fetching google.com, microsoft.com, docker.com & many more works!

So I decided to try these

• VirtualBox 7 + Debian 12 + NAT networking = Not Working, same errors for npm & script
• VirtualBox 7 + Debian 12 + BRIDGE networking = WORKING both script & npm install
• Docker - tried multiple LTS v18/20/22 = All WORKING both script & npm install

NPM Config for Kubuntu & Debian VM(on docker is default ie similar with different path)

$ npm config ls; node bin location = /home/USER/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/bin/node; node version = v22.14.0; npm local prefix = /home/USER/works/nodetest; npm version = 10.9.2; cwd = /home/USER/works/nodetest; HOME = /home/USER; Run `npm config ls -l` to show all defaults

script

const https = require('https');https.get('https://registry.npmjs.org/data-fns', (res) => {  console.log('statusCode:', res.statusCode);  console.log('headers:', res.headers);  const data = [];  res.on('data', (d) => {    data.push(d);  });  res.on('end', ()=>{        const result = data.join("")        console.log(result);  });}).on('error', (e) => {  console.error(e);});

HTTPS webpage Fetch Script error for https://registry.npmjs.org

truncated but this repeats for multiple addresses

AggregateError [ETIMEDOUT]:     at internalConnectMultiple (node:net:1139:18)    at internalConnectMultiple (node:net:1215:5)    at Timeout.internalConnectMultipleTimeout (node:net:1739:5)    at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:596:11)    at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:529:7) {  code: 'ETIMEDOUT',  [errors]: [    Error: connect ETIMEDOUT 104.16.3.35:443        at createConnectionError (node:net:1675:14)        at Timeout.internalConnectMultipleTimeout (node:net:1734:38)        at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:596:11)        at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:529:7) {      errno: -110,      code: 'ETIMEDOUT',      syscall: 'connect',      address: '104.16.3.35',      port: 443    },    Error: connect ENETUNREACH 2606:4700::6810:1f22:443 - Local (:::0)        at internalConnectMultiple (node:net:1211:16)        at Timeout.internalConnectMultipleTimeout (node:net:1739:5)        at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:596:11)        at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:529:7) {      errno: -101,      code: 'ENETUNREACH',      syscall: 'connect',      address: '2606:4700::6810:1f22',      port: 443    },    ...

Full Error Log for the script