The following DigitalOcean documentation is missing a crucial configuration step: https://docs.digitalocean.com/support/how-do-i-enable-proxy-protocol-when-my-load-balancer-sends-requests-to-the-nginx-ingress-controller/ • This guide does not include the do-loadbalancer-hostname configuration, which is essential for proper setup. • Without this, internal traffic routed via the Load Balancer starts failing. To resolve this, the following section should be included or at list mentioned: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/configure-load-balancers/#accessing-by-hostname