While I was trying to figure out what the deal is with the library site, I decided to send them an email. It didn’t send. Instead, I got the message that the “site is not secure.” If I can’t send an email using the same site I use to order DVDs from, then there must be a way I can get around that.
I can’t figure out what changed from when I first began using the site two years ago and now. But obviously, because the “site is not secure” must be because something happened to make it that way.
Any suggestions?
Call the library on the phone?
I need to go to the bread outlet and get the yutes some bread.
Quite likely their certificate expired. Interwebs people use certificates to encode/decode secure messages. Certificates are issued by trusted authorities and there is some complicated math in their generation and use that makes them practically impossible to hack.
They have expiration dates so you can’t manage to nip somebody’s certificate and use it - sort of identity theft. If you do manage it you have to reauthorize before expiration. If you don’t, every technology that uses such a certificate will at the very least alert you and at the very most alert the feds.
There are ways to tell your browser to go ahead, that you’re not that worried about some spy learning that you use the library. Of course, if you like to read books about conservative topics you might want to keep that secret. Anyway, Let us know if you want to try to get around this.
I got much the same message trying to contact a vendor, Avast wouldn’t even allow me to proceed. Called ‘em today, they’re working on it.
So apparently it’s not a false alarm.
Is the library website an http: or does URL start with https: ?
The “s” in https means “secure” and is protocol that wants the SSL certificate of that website to be current.
If the site uses http OR it uses https BUT has an out-of-date or missing SSL cert, your browser will bark about it.
Two things to check:
#1
In Windows Control Panel, open Internt Options, pick the “Advanced” tab, and scroll almost to the bottom to the “Security” section. There, make sure there are checkmarks next to the following:
Use TLS 1.0
Use TLS 1.1
Use TLS 1.2
You might see TLS 1.3, but don’t check that box; it’s experimental.
If you changed anything, pick “Apply”
#2
Pick the “Content” tab, and click the button that says “Clear SSL State”; your browser will forget its recent determination about the library website.
Click “Apply” and “OK” to close Internet Properties.
P.S.
If your browser error page doesn’t give you a link you can click to go to the “not secure” website anyway, there’s a way to get past that.
In the Internet Properties Advanced tab, down in the Security section, you can UNCHECK a couple of boxes that will tell your browser you really don’t care all that much about SSL certificates.
“Check for publisher’s certificate revocation”
and
“Check for server certificate revocation”
After doing your doctoring, “Apply” and “OK” to exit.