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Don Shepherd · 10-30-2018, 12:13 AM

This is one of the reasons that I hate Windows.

My wife has a Windows 7 computer. A website she frequently visits recently went from http:// to https://. Every time she enters the new URL it gives a certificate error message and goes to the old http:// site.

I have disabled a couple of certificate settings under IE..security and it doesn't help. It seems impossible for her to get to the new site on her computer. I cleared the cache, still no joy.

I hate Windows. My Chromebook has no problem getting to the new https:// site.

I'd appreciate any help.

mfleming · 10-30-2018, 01:11 AM

Don,

IE is really out of date and may no longer be supported for security updates. I'd suggest installing either Chrome or Firefox. Both have their drawbacks (memory usage & speed) but they'd be able to handle an encrypted site.

Happy browsing,
~Mark

Steve Simpkin · 10-30-2018, 01:16 AM

Don,

You might try downloading and installing either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox as alternative browsers. I find IE has many "issues" that simply disappear when you use another browser.

Steve

**rprosperi** · 10-30-2018, 01:55 AM

Before doing anything drastic (I consider switching to Chrome drastic)are you sure the date/time and time zone are all correct? If these are not set right, some sites will not let you in as the certificates can be interpreted as invalid.

Also, I would definitely reset all the certificate settings you changed back to their original settings. Changes there can lead to big problems, possibly preventing you from accessing anything.

Don Shepherd · 10-30-2018, 05:30 AM

Thanks Mark, Steve, and Bob.

I finally found a solution to this problem. I received an email from the people at this site and it included a link to the new site. I clicked on the link and, lo and behold, it did take me to the new https:// site. I then added the site to the "favorites" shortcuts toolbar in IE and my wife can now get to it successfully from there.

Bob, I reset the IE security options to their original settings as you suggested, just in case.

Thanks for your help guys. I really didn't want to install Chrome on my wife's computer because she is used to IE.

StephenG1CMZ · 10-30-2018, 07:00 AM

If the emailed link works and the old one doesn't, that suggests the possibility that the two addresses are not the same. Could one have some characters different?
(Alternatively, it could be a coincidence, and the date-time have drifted back into range).

Massimo Gnerucci · 10-30-2018, 07:33 AM

Now that all is settled: what did Windows do wrong? :)

Don Shepherd · 10-30-2018, 08:37 AM

Stephen and Massimo, I think what happened was this. Sometime between yesterday and today, the host of the webpage must have performed some update and deleted the old website. Yesterday the old site was still there, but today it is gone and only the https:// version is present.

The site in question is our church's website. A team has been building a new secure site so that people can make donations online, and that required the https:// version. So I'm thinking someone at church notified the host of the site that the new version was good, and the host deleted the old site.

So I could have avoided the confusion by waiting one day, apparently.

EugeneNine · 10-30-2018, 11:53 AM

Is there some reason you have to use IE and not a web browser?

Don Shepherd · 10-30-2018, 01:35 PM

(10-30-2018 11:53 AM)EugeneNine Wrote: Is there some reason you have to use IE and not a web browser?

Oh, I'm sorry, IE=Internet Explorer, Microsoft's browser.

EugeneNine · 10-30-2018, 01:44 PM

Yes I know what IE is. I don't consider it a web browser anymore. A security hole yes. a textbook example of how to not write code yes. But with it not adhering to internet standards and requiring IE specific code for sites to work it certainly can no longer be called a web browser.

Is there some reason you can't use a real web browser?

Don Shepherd · 10-30-2018, 01:58 PM

(10-30-2018 01:44 PM)EugeneNine Wrote: Yes I know what IE is. I don't consider it a web browser anymore. A security hole yes. a textbook example of how to not write code yes. But with it not adhering to internet standards and requiring IE specific code for sites to work it certainly can no longer be called a web browser.

Is there some reason you can't use a real web browser?

IE is what my wife is used to on her Win PC. I use a Chromebook which uses the Chrome browser, of course.

I can't comment on the security aspects of IE. However, I dislike all Windows operating systems after MS-DOS.

EugeneNine · (This post was last modified: 10-30-2018 02:31 PM by EugeneNine.)

I dislike windows as well but IE is especially bad.

I'll give you an example, my parents always used IE because that is what they were used to. I would have to clean crap off their pc every couple months. I finally got them to use firefox and that bi-monthly clean up went to about 9 months. Same OS, same user, same browsing habits, simply replacing an unsafe program with a real web browser made a huge difference.

Outside of a corporate environment where you have additional proxies and filters no one should be using IE anymore.