Hi @tomasp and thank you for following up so quickly!
(I will definitely look for a way to set up alerts when a response comes in, so it doesn't take me 19 days to reply next time.....)
To answer your question: i have no preference, either are fine as long as visitors are served the website and not an ominous ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED.
I've been researching the issue more, but i'm still stuck. Thank you for any tips you have.