Hello everyone that might be reading this,

I have resolved the issue. As I stated there was an ssl issue on the server I was installing Proseries 2021 on (after many hours of troubleshooting). 

*If* you open ftpfp.proseries.com/pub/proseries/check.txt on the affected machine using Chrome (firefox uses it's own certificates; not the built-in windows certificate store like chrome does) and receive a certificate issue (make sure to view the cert and see if the very top level certificate is expired)

*Then* this is your fix (credit to techglimpse.com/dst-root-ca-x3-expired-certificate-error/):

Step 1: Launch Run dialog

Step 2: Type certmgr.msc and hit enter.

Step 3: In the certificate manager window, click on ‘Trusted Root Certification Authorities‘  > Certificates.

Step 4: Lookout for the ‘DST Root CA X3‘ entry and click the delete icon to remove it from the Trusted certification authority store.

Step 5: Download the latest CA certificate from letsencrypt.org/certs/isrgrootx1.der.

Step 6: Double click on the downloaded file and install it. Remember to choose ‘Place all certificates in the following store‘ and choose ‘Trusted Root Certification Authorities'

Step 7: Close the browser and launch it again.

Step 8: Test the website to ensure everything is working fine. If not, you may need to clear the browser cache and try again.

Hope this helps some out down the road because I spent way too much time on this not to share it.

FYI, don't listen to support when they say your firewall is blocking the connection when you know it's not the case.