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"Connection was reset" error for https sites after Oct 14 update

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  • 10 have this problem
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  • Last reply by spillington

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My son's Windows 7 netbook has the security update for Firefox from October 14. Now he can't open any https sites. This is the only thing I'm aware of that has changed on his machine. He only gets a "connection was reset" error. I've tried running in safe mode and I've cleared all the history.

Chrome and Internet Explorer do not have this issue. He prefers Firefox but will be using Chrome until this issue is fixed in an upcoming release. Can anyone tell me when that will be?

My son's Windows 7 netbook has the security update for Firefox from October 14. Now he can't open any https sites. This is the only thing I'm aware of that has changed on his machine. He only gets a "connection was reset" error. I've tried running in safe mode and I've cleared all the history. Chrome and Internet Explorer do not have this issue. He prefers Firefox but will be using Chrome until this issue is fixed in an upcoming release. Can anyone tell me when that will be?

All Replies (7)

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Let's see whether we can figure out what is causing the problem.

Q1: When Firefox updated, did it perform a Reset? That would cause a folder named Old Firefox Data to appear on the desktop.

Q2: Do any of the unvisitable sites work in a private window? You can open a private window using Ctrl+Shift+p. This tests whether the problem is likely to be caused by old cookies.

Q3: If he visits one of the problem sites using a different browser such as Chrome or IE, and checks the certificate, does it show an unexpected issuer? Here's what I mean:

In Chrome or IE, click the padlock in the address bar, then view the certificate and check the "Issued by" section. For this site, for example, it should say "DigiCert High Assurance EV CA-1". For Google or Youtube .com sites, you would expect to see "Google Internet Authority G2".

Sometimes you will find a completely different issuer, such as one associated with your security/filtering software, or with malware. That can be very helpful in tracking down and fixing the problem.

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Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test.

It is possible that your security software (firewall, anti-virus) blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.

Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full, unrestricted, access to install for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.

See:

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First, thank you for the suggestions!

I have discovered that NetNanny issues their own certificates for https sites (ContentWatch Root Certificate Authority). At least that's what shows in Chrome when it's on. When I have Netnanny on and try to open one of these sites in Firefox, clicking on the little globe icon says "Verified by: Not specified" and "Connection Not Encrypted".

I went through the steps to import the certificate authority, but, unfortunately, the same thing is still happening.

Any further suggestions?

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Did you export the NetNanny root certificate in Google Chrome and imported this certificate in Firefox?

You will have to set trust bits to make the certificate work as a trusted root certificate.

You can retrieve the certificate and check details like who issued certificates and expiration dates of certificates.

  • Click the link at the bottom of the error page: "I Understand the Risks"
  • Let Firefox retrieve the certificate: "Add Exception" -> "Get Certificate"
  • Click the "View" button and inspect the certificate and check who is the issuer.

You can see more details like intermediate certificates that are used in the Details tab.

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Did you find a solution to this problem? I am experiencing the same issue, and also have NetNanny installed.

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This is the response I got back from Contentwatch/Netnanny......

We do have an open bug regarding the incompatibility with FireFox 33. We ask that you use FireFox 32 until we get the issue resolved.

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/32.0/win32/en-US/

I don't know how advisable it is to go back a release though.

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Reverting to a previous release (in my case, version 31.0) resolved the issue for me.