OK all you IT and Network guys - Help me solve a security Certificate issue

Shadowfax

Shadowfax

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Joined
May 8, 2013
Messages
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Location
Bucks County PA
I have an odd one that I have been struggling with since a few weeks after I got a new ASUS 8.1 laptop. I have a wireless Win7 Laptop, 2 newer 8.1 towers, and an older XP Pro box that I built 10 years ago that do not exhibit this same error when going to the same exact URL, Hotmail or Outlook.com as it is now.

I got the laptop to keep in the kitchen so my wife did not have to go up and down the steps too our home office all day for email. But a few weeks ago this site started throwing invalid cert errors with no way to create an exception.

I mainly use Firefox but it happens in IE as well.

So when it started, I also had Trillion installed for chat capability so my wife and I had easy contact while I am at work. That started flaking out and losing connection to MSN and the associated mail so I installed Skype and removed Trillion.

Now, I can get to the mail several ways 90% of the day and then all of a sudden it fails and throws the invalid cert error and I am locked out for hours or til the next day. But at that time, I can turn on every other PC I have and log right into the page without a problem every time.

So that leads me to believe it is specific to this laptop. I searched the net for answers and although it is well known, there is no solution. I spent hours chatting with Microsoft help and the best I could get was that they were aware of a random cert issue but had no resolution.

What I have tried so far

Uninstalled Trillion
Reset IE Browser
Added a key in Firefox about:config (but learned it no longer works with later versions)
Told IE not to check for certs
Exported the cert from outlook.com page when logged in and imported it into Certification Manager
Exported and imported certs from another working PC
Re-synced Root Certificate
Reinstalled wireless driver

Nothing resolves this so before I copy everything off of this laptop and reset the OS (reinstall) I thought maybe someone here would have a suggestion that might actually resolve it.

My guess is something corrupt in the registry but no way to prove it or resolve it.

Thanks for anything you can think of!

Brian
 
Brian,

I haven't done PC support (except on my own computers) in years, but it wouldn't surprise me if your antivirus / anti-malware / software firewall were to blame.

What are you running for these security protections?

My wife has a similar problem with AVG. I don't believe it's a certificate error, but she will randomly cease being able to surf the internet, get email, etc. until she restarts her laptop. She recently found that when the problem occurs if she temporarily disables AVG she can get back to surfing.

You might try temporarily disabling your antivirus when the issue happens, and if need be even uninstall it to see if that helps. If it does, then either take up the issue with the AV vendor or change products.
 
Mike, it came with a trial of McAffee but I removed it and am using Windows Defender, which is working fine on other 8.1 boxes but I will disable it and try
 
So while I am setting back up the restored laptop, it happens again in IE but allowed me to continue on.

5 minutes later it happened on the Win7 laptop my wife was using. So that means it is now down to my DSL Router or Verizon.

I guess I am happy it's not the new laptop but pissed it keeps happening for any reason. Now I will have to spend hours on the phone with Verizon Support....YAY
 
Shadowfax said:
So while I am setting back up the restored laptop, it happens again in IE but allowed me to continue on.

5 minutes later it happened on the Win7 laptop my wife was using. So that means it is now down to my DSL Router or Verizon.

I guess I am happy it's not the new laptop but pissed it keeps happening for any reason. Now I will have to spend hours on the phone with Verizon Support....YAY
Click to expand...

Hopefully you will be on the phone with some pleasant chap from India who calls himself Bobby.
 
So it looks like I have exhausted everything besides dealing with Verizon.

I setup the laptop using thru the electric ethernet connection that came from a Slingbox and all was fine. Unplug the cable and turn on the Wireless adapter and BAM, Security Cert error going to Hotmail. Turned off wireless and plugged in the cable, went straight to site.

Thinking maybe a weak wireless signal could cause the issue, I went out and purchased a Range Extender which made the wireless connection strong and fast, but after several successful attempts to go to Hotmail, I again get the error.

Very strange issue but at least narrowed down to the Wireless portion of my router, or my ISP.
 
Brian, I'm no computer guy but when I had problems similar to yours, I went out and bought an Apple router and that cured my problem with Verizon FiOS.
 
So I just spent my hour and a half on the phone with Verizon-India and a nice chap named Edison.

Wouldn't you believe it? Now Microsoft Support, Outlook Mail Support, and now my ISP Support ALL said "I have never heard that one, sir". I just got done educating the guy for his own job. He was trying to Reset my Firefox Browser because he thought everything must be the same as in IE. Nope, but resetting the IE browser was Microsoft's answer to it.

Anyway, he confirmed my router settings were all good, but he changed the channel from 9 to 11. Not sure what that will do but he told me it will be a more stable connection. What was wrong with channel 1-9 and 10 I asked. "11 will give you a more stable connection sir"

The only other thing we did was to Enable NetBios over TCP under the WINS Tab in Network settings.

I had the laptop in work on our corporate network and all day it never error-ed going to email. Now I am back on my own network, which with the extender gives me 2 wireless networks. I found that when I get the error, immediately switching to the other wireless network and refreshing the error-ed page gets me right in.

We shall see. He said they would escalate it and complimented me on my networking skills :)

The last thing I can try is disable my wireless portion of the router and connect a standalone wireless router from one of the ports.

Humming the theme song from Jeopardy in my head now as I wait.

By the way, Goose Island Bourbon County Stout is friggin awesome and a light 13.8% kick!
 
Stringreen said:
Don't you back up everything? Just go back to the back up if you did.
Click to expand...

It is not an issue of data or backing up. It is not machine specific, it is my wireless network and router back to Verizon. As part of my troubleshooting noted earlier, I reset the new laptop back to out of the box settings which is the same as a fresh install.

I am real close to solving this mystery and at least I know have a quick workaround of switching to the second wireless connection I now have.
 
Another update

My workaround of using a wireless extender that creates a second network, and switching them when the issue occurs failed after several days. It then also started happening with a wired connection.

I went out and picked up a new router yesterday and so far so good. Fingers crossed that is was the router flaking out or I will have to get back to Verizon and have them conference Microsoft in.
 
Looks like the new Router has resolved my issue. No problems for a full week and a half until last Friday when I lost my Internet service alltogether due to an outage somewhere. Still waiting for it to come back on line.

That said, I do not know if the Router itself was flaking out, or the servers and network it was hooked to 8 years ago. The new router only needed my ISP user/Password and connected and setup everything quickly. It may have connected to a different path than that of the original router so as to not hit a server with a bad certificate.
 
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