have just reset up my server and installed debian 8, and done the usual
apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade

then installed znc according to and all went smoothly.

when doing the znc --makeconf it detects ssl as installed, and i setup the server

server is rc6 which has 3 different servers, i have tried the 2 most common ones
atropine.rc6.org and willow.rc6.org now both support ssl on port 6697, and i know this as i can connect fine from home using mirc and the windows port of irssi.

i can connect fine using the standard 6667 port with znc and irssi.

apt-get install openssl informs me the latest is installed, so i took the longer approach of

wget openssl, untaring it, then doing the usual ./configure make and make install etc

further
znc --makepem does not solve it

following a ssl certificate creation guide, then pushing that cert to znc.pem also does not fix it.

when i had the server running about 1-2 years ago, i dont recall it been this hard to get working,
im probably missing one very obvious step.

Thanks