# Solved: There is a problem with this website's security certificate.



## referee07

I keep getting the message: "There is a problem with this website's security certificate." when I try to access certain website which I know are good, e.g., a US Govt. site for job hunting. I believe this has something to do with IE 7's "Phising Filter." I have tried dropping the "s" from web addresses, i.e., changing "https://" to "http://" with no success. This has been very frustrating. I have called in ISP with no success and Microsoft's telephone help costs. Has anyone else had this problem and if so, were you able to solve it? Thanks in advance.


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## Papermoon

Is your system clock showing the correct date and time? If not, the certificates may show up as expired.


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## referee07

Papermoon, the date and time are correct. I don't think that this was happening with I had IO V.6 installed. I have tried messing around with the Phising Filter with no success. I now that the sites that I try to gain access to are legitimate. I just need to know how to access them.


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## TOGG

You could always try Opera or Firefox, assuming IE7 will allow itself not to be classified as your default browser!


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## referee07

TOGG, in your opinion, which is better, Opera or Firefox? I have read where Firefox does not present the virus, Phishing and other malware potential that IE has.


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## TOGG

When I gave up on IE, the first alternative I tried was Opera and I liked it so much that I paid to remove the advert (it's free now!). Opera is currently at version 9.02 and there are no known exploits at the moment. It comes fully featured and works 'out of the box' or can be customised; http://operawiki.info/Opera/

I do have Firefox as well as a backup but don't use it very much. Firefox 2.0 currently has a low risk exploit that affects its password storage function. It will be fixed soon but the workaround is to disable that feature until the new version comes out. If you do try it, be sure to get the NoScript addon because that makes surfing safer if you limit the ability of sites to do scripting.

I think it must be nearly two years since the Dept. of Homeland Security advised people to stop using IE and, despite the 'improvements' claimed for IE7, I suspect that it's still pretty good advice.


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## referee07

TOGG, thanks very much for the reply. I would have responded sooner but I didn't receive a notice in my Email indicating that you responded and only saw it now because I came back to TSG.com re: another issue. I have downloaded Opera and it looks good (although anything new will take some getting used to because I have been using IE for many years now.) I tried going to the USAjobs.com site and ran into one warning about the Certificate but clicked on "accept" and everything went along fine. One question though, apparently Opera has no know flaws re: malware (as of yet, anyway.) Does Opera have any "built-in" virus, worm, etc. protectors to detect any malware that may be trying to use is as a portal into computers? Thanks again for the suggestion.


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## TOGG

I don't know anything about the 'protection' built into Opera but you might get more information from the 'Community' or 'Support' options available under 'Help'.

I have always assumed that, regardless of any superiopr features in Opera's coding, it benefits from the fact that there is not a lot of point in writing exploits to specifically attack Opera, which is used by a minority, when there are all those IE equipped boxes just begging to be hit.

Obviously, using Opera will not immunise anybody from the holes that are continually being found in the various versions of Windows but, if the program that sits between you and the web is tough enough, it must help your chances of staying safe.

As for site certificates, I have read somewhere that, because the certification process is relatively expensive, it is not surprising that some sites allow theirs to expire. However, I am surprised that a site maintained by, or for, the US Government should have an expired certificate. Managerial incompetence perhaps?

If you want to have another go at getting IE7 to work properly, there is a relatively new site with a lot of useful info; http://www.ie-vista.com/known_issues.html


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## TOGG

On second thoughts, I've just noticed how many threads here at TSG feature IE7 problems. If I were you I would let the dust settle for another month or two and let the other beta testers do the work for you! 

Same goes for Vista, if I was thinking of upgrading (which I'm not) I would be waiting for the first Service Pack or one year from now, whichever is earlier.


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## bhroin

I ran into this problem... and also scratched my head for a while. 

Security certificates are issued for given time periods. If IE determines that the current time (from your client computer) does not fall into the server certificate time range, it will give this error. In my case, I had accidentaly changed my local computer clock to the wrong year. Correcting this resolved the problem.


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## Kathleen3

Papermoon said:


> Is your system clock showing the correct date and time? If not, the certificates may show up as expired.


Thank you soooooooooooooooooooo much, I almost reformatted my computer and I would have lost everything on here, and it was the friggin clock.........thank you thank you. That certificate error was driving me nuts. I went into security settings, I downloaded some Dod certificate thing, I almost felt like throwing it out my window  Not really, but thank you very much


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## ikeroppi

"I downloaded some Dod certificate thing" 

Kathleen3 - what steps did you take to down the DOD certificate? I'm running into the same problem on a DOD site with IE7 and can't fix. I already checked the clock issue and that's not the problem. Thanks...


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## Kathleen3

http://www.acq.osd.mil/atl_dod_rc.htm

Try this place, its not what I found, and I have been searching and searching for the website I was at....anyway I am going to keep looking here............I wonder if I can copy the certificates from my computer and email them to you?
I will be back.......
Kathleen3


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## Kathleen3

I know you have to go to where your certificates are.....click on Tools, then click on Internet options.....Then click on Content, then click on Certificates. It should be in the middle there somewhere..............then go to the tab that says...Untrusted Publishers. Delete stuff out of that folder. Press OK.....................
Now......this is the website that I went to and followed the instructions..... its a pdf file...

https://www.jatdi.mil/support/dodcert/install_dod_certificate.pdf

I hope it works for you, but that wasn't my problem is was the clock.......anyway Good Luck, let me know how it turns out for you. 
[email protected]
www.funwithurpictures.com


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## markcrobinson

I have a client getting the message on a site that has no security certificate:
http://www.argandenergy.com/

Is this part of the same problem?


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## Kathleen3

The URL that you just gave me there is that the one that he is having a problem with??
I opened it with my browser and it was OK
Does the certificate error happed with any other website?
Here try this one
www.funwithurpictures.com
That's mine, but I just picked this one because I have no certificate on this either. I don't know anyone elses website information except my own......try clicking on that and let me know what happens...
Kathy


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## pamband34

This was my problem too. It was driving me bananas as well. My nephew must have accidently clicked on the clock setting a few months ago. I'm thrilled.


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## cedarcreek

I'm also have security cert problem with IE7. Everything worked fine with IE6. My clock is correct. I have two computers that are not connected in any way, both running IE7. I get the security cert problem with one computer but not the other. I keep getting the error on multiple websites with the one PC. Since the website are fine on the one PC, it has to be a setting on the other, I'm just not hitting the right one.

Any suggestions?

Thanks


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## cedarcreek

Hi

I just posted my problem and I just fixed it. Here is what I did.

Tools, internet options, content, and then clicked on "Clear SSL state" :up:


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## cedarcreek

Me again.

Spoke too soon. :down:


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## Kathleen3

Glad you got er figured out................i must bookmark your answer incase I have a prob again with the darn thing


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## umm mujaab

Hello I was reading this thread, obviousy because im having similiar problems. I saw the thing about the date and i look over at my sad sad infected and abused laptop only to find out that today is actually is june 6, 2000. so I changed the date also to realize that suddenly my laptop was connecting to the internet. I will try to figure which questions I need to ask to actually solve my whole list of problems later , but for now thanks for the above advice.


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