Ah, yes - SSL will muck it up. My script calls http://$NodeAddress:7876/nxt?requestType=getState to get the state of your node. It won't be able to connect via HTTPS.
Oh, wait, that's not right. Just a sec...
Okay - what's happening is that your node isn't announcing a hallmark.
For example, on
http://54.85.132.143:7876/nxt?requestType=getPeer&peer=174.96.137.92 I get this:
{"shareAddress":true,"platform":"nxtnode","application":"NRS","weight":23369,"hallmark":"bf56a18ccaf3feb0d47cee2b8700d9ecc673b22e04a10c08907d9f7968a0c67f11006e78746e6f64652e686f70746f2e6f7267640000004b523301a3f459dcb81fcfa23ab95d379a4ae52185288c0fa21a19e8effe09c3e8b108fa0ab289c9bb80bbffc364a4d1502aad17c8c8f4ce31e37a1f9aade59b56ceb3e61f","state":1,"announcedAddress":"nxtnode.hopto.org","downloadedVolume":2426218,"blacklisted":false,"version":"1.1.6","uploadedVolume":7695279}
That node is announcing it's hallmark.
On your node, when I run
http://54.85.132.143:7876/nxt?requestType=getPeer&peer=217.17.88.5 I see this:
{"shareAddress":true,"platform":"PC","application":"NRS","weight":0,"state":2,"announcedAddress":"217.17.88.5","downloadedVolume":490790,"blacklisted":false,"version":"1.1.6","uploadedVolume":1889044}
No hallmark. :/ Maybe somebody a little more NXT savvy can explain why a hallmarked node won't return a hallmark to one of it's peers?