Hi all,
I’m trying to install a Let’s Encrypt certificate on my domain fishbids.com.au using CloudPanel on a Vultr Ubuntu server.
The domain is registered with GoDaddy, and DNS is pointing correctly to the server IP (139.180.162.241). However, the certificate issuance fails with this error:

Domain could not be validated, error message: 
error type: urn:ietf😛arams:acme:error:unauthorized 
error detail: 139.180.162.241: Invalid response from https://fishbids.com.au/.well-known/acme-challenge/MvCBfCVxqeunlaZ5NnaJoN96x8n0NU5cSL-XAHoCVSk: 404

It looks like the ACME challenge URL returns a 404 instead of being served correctly.
Has anyone seen this before or knows how to resolve it?

Thanks in advance.

That error usually means the Let's Encrypt verification file isn’t accessible under the required /.well-known/acme-challenge/ path.
Let’s go step-by-step:

1. Confirm DNS is working

You already mentioned that DNS points to 139.180.162.241, so that’s good. Just in case, run:

dig +short fishbids.com.au

Make sure it resolves to your server.

2. Don’t force redirect HTTP to HTTPS (yet)

During certificate issuance, Let’s Encrypt makes a request to:

http://fishbids.com.au/.well-known/acme-challenge/...

If your server redirects HTTP → HTTPS, and the HTTPS site doesn’t have a cert yet, the validation fails with a 404 or SSL error.
Fix:

• Temporarily disable forced HTTPS redirects in CloudPanel or your .htaccess / Nginx config.
• Then retry the certificate issuance.
• Once the cert is installed, you can re-enable HTTPS redirection.

3. Check file serving works from .well-known/

You can test this by manually creating a file in your site’s public/.well-known/acme-challenge/ folder:

mkdir -p /home/cloudpanel/htdocs/YOUR_DOMAIN/public/.well-known/acme-challenge
echo "test-ok" > /home/cloudpanel/htdocs/YOUR_DOMAIN/public/.well-known/acme-challenge/testfile

Then visit:

http://fishbids.com.au/.well-known/acme-challenge/testfile

If that gives a 404, your web server is blocking access to that path. Check your web server rules (like a location block in Nginx or .htaccess rules in Apache).

4. Cloudflare in the middle?

If you’re using Cloudflare proxy, it can interfere with Let's Encrypt verification. Make sure:

• Proxy is disabled (gray cloud in DNS tab)
• Or use DNS challenge method instead of HTTP challenge.

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Let me know if you try the above and still face the issue — happy to dig deeper.
Once it’s working, don’t forget to re-enable your HTTPS redirect. 😉