Sometimes, quite often, when users try to log into a certain Internet resource, they receive a message that an error occurred while establishing a secure connection. How to fix such a failure will now be discussed. Depending on the situation, several different techniques can be used.
What does it mean: “Error establishing a secure connection”?
First of all, you should clearly understand the problem of such a failure. The essence of the error is that when accessing a specific site, the system needs to check the SSL certificate used for the HTTPS connection in order to establish the identity of the publisher.
However, several situations can be clearly identified when such a check gives a negative result, as a result of which a message is displayed stating that an error occurred when establishing a secure connection:
- discrepancy between the date and time on the computer and the Internet settings;
- outdated or expired certificate;
- certificate with incorrect serial number;
- OCSP server errors;
- incorrect browser settings (most often Mozilla Firefox);
- blocking by the antivirus.
Let's consider several typical situations.
Error when establishing a secure connection: how to fix it in the simplest way?
Let's start with the most primitive way to fix the problem. As mentioned above, the time set on the computer may not correspond to the Internet settings. Therefore, these settings need to be changed.
Some users try to set the date and time directly in Windows, this does not give the desired result, and the error when establishing a secure connection appears again. Why? Yes, only because the configuration must be done in the primary BIOS input/output system. Then you can still count on something.
Disabling SSL and installing a certificate in antivirus
Antiviruses, compared to Windows Firewall or Defender, are much more likely to block such connections, considering the connection to be unreliable.
The solution to the problem can be either temporarily disabling the protection, which is not very convenient, or setting the appropriate parameters. As a rule, such a section is located in the network settings. Here you need to disable SSL verification, and then use the “Certificate Installation Wizard”, which will evaluate the validity of the connection, after which you just need to install the certificate. After confirming successful installation, the problem should go away.
Fixing errors in browsers using the example of Mozilla Firefox
With browsers the matter is somewhat more complicated. As a rule, the message that an error occurred when establishing a secure connection is most often issued by the “fire fox”.
You can correct the situation as follows. First, with the browser disabled, go to Explorer to your profile installed for the browser (the profile folder is located on the system drive in the directory with the user name of the Users directory, where you need to go to the AppData directory, then Roaming, then Mozilla, then Firefox , after that - Profiles, finally -
Note: additionally, in the tls_tickets security parameters, you can double-click the parameter value to false. Just in case, you can check whether the blocking extension AdBlock is enabled.
Problems with torrent trackers
Torrent trackers, as you know, are not particularly favored by the governments of many countries, believing that such sites only host pirated content. This is partly true, but not always. One such resource is the NNM.Club tracker. An error when establishing a secure connection appears quite often.
The tracker itself is now serviced exclusively at two addresses - 81.17.30.22 and 193.201.227.16. If something different is returned when pinging an address, it means that a spontaneous redirection is occurring. In this case, you just need to clear the DNS cache, see if there are entries for these addresses in the HOSTS file at the very bottom of the text, and finally, you can simply set exclusion rules for these IPs in the antivirus or firewall.
As a last resort, if it is problematic for an ordinary user to do this or the solution does not help, instead of a torrent file, you need to download the so-called magnet link and run it in the appropriate torrent program. In principle, the same applies to other trackers.
This article explains why you may see a Secure Connection Failed or a Did Not Connect: Potential Security Issue error page and what you can do.
- If you see a Your connection is not secure Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead error page, see the What do the security warning codes mean? article.
- To troubleshoot other error messages, see Websites don"t load - troubleshoot and fix error messages.
Table of Contents
Secure connection cannot be established
Alternatively, you can uninstall third-party security software and use Microsoft Security Essentials, the free antivirus offered by Microsoft for Windows 7.Alternatively, you can uninstall third-party security software and use Windows Defender, the built-in antivirus on Windows 8 and Windows 10.
Incorrect system clock
Firefox uses certificates on secure websites to ensure that your information is being sent to the intended recipient and can"t be read by eavesdroppers. An incorrect system date can cause Firefox to detect that the website"s security certificate is expired or invalid. Make sure your computer is set to the correct date, time and time zone. For more information, see
Due to the increasing frequency of blocking of web resources, an increasing number of users have to deal with access errors. However, they may not always be related to sites being blocked by providers; the problem may be hidden on the computer itself. This is an error, and it does not matter which browser is used.
The error may occur due to the lack of a certificate on the site confirming the safe operation of the browser with this site. SSL , also the reason for its appearance may be related to changes in the settings of the software responsible for system security. Today we will look at one of the most common variants of the above error, in which the user receives a notification "Website "URL" sent an invalid response. ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR" .
We can say with a greater degree of confidence that everything is fine with the site itself, however, you can check its availability using some service like ping-admin.ru won't hurt either. If the resource is available, you should look for the causes of the error on your computer. There may be several reasons. If the site uses a connection HTTPS first you can check if the protocols are enabled SSL2 And SSL3 in browser properties. Open the classic control panel, launch the applet.
Switch to tab "Additionally" and make sure that in the checkboxes SSL 2.0 And SSL 3.0 checkboxes are checked.
At the same time, check if it matches time on a PC with your time zone. If not, set the correct time and enable synchronization.
Alternatively, you can try disabling protocol filtering HTTPS , although it is undesirable to do this, since this reduces the level of security. In , for example, this can be done as follows. Go to internal address chrome://net-internals/#hsts , select from the menu on the left HSTS, in field "Delete Domain" insert the address of the problematic site without the prefix HTTPS and press "Delete".
After this, you will be able to log into the site using the usual protocol. HTTP .
Note: Before making changes to protocol processing settings, you need to completely clear your browser cache and delete saved files cookies, and then try to access the site. If the login is completed without errors, with filtering disabled HTTPS there is no need to rush.
There is a very high probability that access to the site is blocked by the anti-virus software installed on your computer. Sometimes the cause of the error becomes obvious after enabling private mode in the browser (incognita). Here, for example, is what it shows when going to a blocked site in incognito mode. In this case the error "This site cannot provide a secure connection" causes antivirus .
Therefore, you need to either disable real-time protection in this program, or add the blocked site to the exclusion list.
The settings of other antivirus software are checked in a similar way. In particular, users had to deal with the described error Dr.Web (firewall settings) And ESET NOD32 ("SSL/TLS protocol filtering" setting) . At the same time, you need to check the operation of the extensions installed in the browser, since some of them, in particular, SaveFrom.net may interfere with normal operation of network resources. And one last thing. If you receive an access error when opening a site, use the most common anonymizer, or even better VPN -service, in most cases these tools allow you to bypass such restrictions.
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Considered the most stable browser, some users may encounter various errors during use. This article will discuss the “Error when establishing a secure connection” error, and specifically how to resolve it.
The message “Error establishing a secure connection” can appear in two cases: when you go to a secure site and, accordingly, when you go to an unsecured site. We will look at both types of problems below.
In most cases, the user encounters an error when establishing a secure connection when navigating to a secure site.
The user can be told that the site is protected by “https” in the address bar before the name of the site itself.
If you encounter the message “Error establishing a secure connection,” then under it you can see an explanation of the cause of the problem.
Reason 1: The certificate will not be valid until the date [date]
When you go to a secure website, Mozilla Firefox is required to check that the site has certificates that will ensure that your data will only be transferred where it was intended.
Typically, this type of error indicates that the date and time are set incorrectly on your computer.
In this case, you will need to change the date and time. To do this, click on the date icon in the lower right corner and select the item in the window that appears "Date and Time Settings" .
Reason 2: Certificate has expired [date]
This error may also indicate that the time was set incorrectly, or it may be a sure sign that the site did not update its certificates on time.
If the date and time are set on your computer, then the problem is likely with the site, and until it updates the certificates, access to the site can only be obtained by adding to the exceptions, which is described towards the end of the article.
Reason 3: The certificate is not trusted because its issuer's certificate is unknown
An error like this can occur in two cases: the site really shouldn’t be trusted, or the problem lies in the file cert8.db, located in the Firefox profile folder that was corrupted.
If you are confident that the site is secure, then the problem is probably still a corrupted file. And to solve the problem, Mozilla Firefox will need to create a new such file, which means you need to delete the old version.
To get to the profile folder, click on the Firefox menu button and in the window that appears, click on the icon with a question mark.
An additional menu will appear in the same area of the window, in which you will need to click on the item "Information for problem solving" .
In the window that opens, click on the button "Show folder" .
After the profile folder appears on the screen, you need to close Mozilla Firefox. To do this, click on the browser menu button and in the window that appears, click on the button "Exit" .
Now let's go back to the profile folder. Find the cert8.db file in it, right-click on it and select "Delete" .
Once the file is deleted, you can close the profile folder and launch Firefox again.
Reason 4: the certificate is not trusted because certificate chain missing
Such an error usually occurs due to antiviruses that have the SSL scanning function activated. Go to your antivirus settings and disable the network (SSL) scanning feature.
How to resolve the error when going to an unsecured site?
If the message "Error while switching to a secure connection" appears when you go to an unsecured site, this may indicate a conflict between settings, add-ons, and themes.
First of all, open the browser menu and go to the section "Extras" . In the left area of the window, open the tab "Extensions" , disable the maximum number of extensions installed for your browser.
Next go to the tab "Appearance" and remove all third-party themes, leaving and applying the standard one for Firefox.
After completing these steps, check for errors. If it persists, try disabling hardware acceleration.
To do this, click on the browser menu button and go to the section "Settings" .
In the left pane of the window, go to the tab "Additional" , and at the top open the subtab "Are common" . In this window you will need to uncheck the box “Use hardware acceleration whenever possible” .
Workaround
If you are still unable to resolve the “Error establishing a secure connection” message, but are confident that the site is secure, you can fix the problem by bypassing the persistent Firefox warning.
To do this, in the error window, click on the button "Or you can add an exception" , then click on the button that appears "Add exception" .
A window will appear on the screen in which click on the button "Get certificate" , and then click on the button "Verify Security Exception" .
Video tutorial:
We hope this article helped you troubleshoot problems with Mozilla Firefox.