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Topic: Firefox & ZoneAlarm |
Brint Hannay
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 18 Jul 2008 9:51 am |
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I downloaded (installed? I'm not good with the terminology) Firefox 2.0.0.16 yesterday. Today when I attempt to open my IP-based e-mail, which is my home page, I get a message saying "Website Certificate Issued by Unknown Authority". It warns that I should "examine the certificate carefully" before opening the website (my e-mail site). It says that, among other things, it is possible I am connecting to a false website pretending to be my webmail. A button says "Examine Certificate". This opens a message window with a bunch of information including a "Serial no." and two different "Fingerprints", all of which consist of long strings of pairs of numbers, or number and letter, separated by colons. I have, of course, no idea what to make of this information.
History: I was one of those who lost Internet connectivity when I installed the recent Windows update referenced in another thread. At the time I solved the problem not by removing the "Hotfix" but by uninstalling my ZoneAlarm Firewall (substituting the firewall that's part of the Norton package). Since then I found that ZoneAlarm said they had issued a new version that fixed the problem, so I installed that. Now, although nothing in the message windows identifies who the message is from (Microsoft? Firefox? ZoneAlarm?) I suspect this is a ZoneAlarm/Firefox compatibility issue. I am writing this in IE, with ZoneAlarm shut down.
What the heck is this "certificate" business, anyhow? And am I right to suspect this is a symptom showing ZoneAlarm still hasn't gotten the bugs out, vis-a-vis Firefox? Or Firefox's update renewed the incompatibility?
I'm tempted to ignore everybody's updates from now on!  |
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Gary Lee Gimble
From:
Fredericksburg, VA.
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Posted 18 Jul 2008 10:06 am
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Brint, while you are ignoring those pesty updates, how about coming over to Paul's for another jam. You picked your rear off last time....  |
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Brint Hannay
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 18 Jul 2008 10:35 am One theory eliminated
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Gary Lee, you are much too kind!
But back to the circus: I just uninstalled ZoneAlarm again, and I still get the same message window when I try to open in Firefox. Scratch the ZoneAlarm theory.
More information about the message:
Under the heading given above, it says:
| Quote: |
Unable to verify the identity of [website name] as a trusted site.
Possible reasons for this error:
--Your browser does not recognize the Certificate Authority that issued the site's certificate
--The site's certificate is incomplete due to a server misconfiguration
--You are connected to a site pretending to be [website name], possibly to obtain your confidential information.
Please notify the site's webmaster about this problem. |
The only potential clue as to the source of this message is that in the upper left corner there is a yellow triangle with an exclamation point in it.
I called the "Technical Support" line at my IP provider, and they had no idea what I was talking about. again! |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 18 Jul 2008 11:50 am
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I'll bet that your email service forgot to renew their certification. It happens to the best of them. Or, maybe they are hosted on some other company's server and the certificate belongs to the hosting company, not the emailer. Or, a security setting for your email is misconfigured and is demanding to see a certificate, when none exists.
Email a link to the login screen for your email provider and I'll try to sus it out. Don't give me any personal details, just the landing page where you login. I will test it in Firefox 2.0.0.16 and 3.01.
PS: This has nothing to do with ZoneAlarm or any other firewall. It is a browser security setting issue.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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