Security Alerts on many WordPress sites
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Hi,
You had foresight on that one! : )
Surfing in IE this morning had many problems, a few of which I took Print Screens… Something needs fixing somewhere… I’ll be uploading three Print Screens to my media folder… They have notes that hopefully make things clear for you… If not, please ask me because problems like these indicate some sort of lack of safety — especially since other blogging platforms do not present problems.
Most of the problems encountered this morning were disappearing padlocks and security notices at the bottom of the screen… The three uploads are more involved.
It sure would be nice to know WP is making progress with these situations…. Thank you all for everything you do to enable everyone to surf WP blog sites safely.
Have a great day.
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Good morning –
I’m going to read this thread over again, start to finish, and brainstorm a bit. Then I’ll be back with some ideas.
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My suspicion is that this is very specific to your internet connection and/or computer. It’s not something I can replicate on my end.
I think the best plan forward is to switch internet browsers so that you can have an enjoyable experience online.
I know you had success in using Firefox to post previously.
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Hi Liz,
Thank you so much for looking through this… I really appreciate it… I’m getting up in age and am not at all technically inclined — but somethings just don’t make sense…
If my internet connection and/or computer has a problem, then why does surfing WP sites work fine with Firefox?.. Shouldn’t there be problems clear across the board — even for going to regular websites?..
I have not gone to regular websites in Firefox — only WP sites — because my Favorites are so messed up in Firefox and Edge… It’s so time consuming to find anything… Edge organizes things differently from Firefox…
I can try talking to a tech at our local ISP, but don’t feel that will be helpful… I just feel this has something to do with a conflict between Microsoft and Firefox… All sorts of software programmers make their software to fit in with Windows, Apple, Linux, and whatever other things there are… They have ways of making their software work together…
Surfing WP sites in IE this morning showed padlocks in the address bar AND a security warning at the bottom… I’ll just keep trying to figure this out…
Thank you for your concern, patience, and helpfulness… It is greatly appreciated… Wishing you a wonderful day…
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Hello everyone,
I’ve paid some attention to this thread as I’ve been getting certificate errors and warnings in up-to-date browsers on WordPress.com blogs here and there (oddly, most often in Firefox, not often in Chrome). I think I figured out the culprit for my setup: DNS filters.
For our family’s home wifi, I filtered everything through Norton’s ConnectSafe, which blocks content I don’t want my kids to access. That seemed to be causing issues with some WordPress.com certificates. I switched our filter to the OpenDNS FamilyShield yesterday morning and have not had any issues since then. That’s not a long time to know if it will happen, but so far, so good.
@96isaiah, I hope the errors stop on your end, too!
Best,
Jesse -
Hi Jesse,
Boy! You are adding some very interesting notes… Since your setup is so very different from mine — and you experience the alerts mostly in Firefox — it seems you are correct in suspecting some sort of setup… I think DNS has something to do with domain names, but am not sure.
I had problems using Nortons, so quite a few years ago I started using Windows Defender and it seems to be fine for what I do… I would like to know how your switch in filters turns out… I think it was Liz that suggested I make some sort of change in my Internet Explorer settings, but I’ve been afraid to do that, as it seems like it would make my computer less secure… I’m kinda chicken because I don’t really know the consequences of such actions.
It appears that this old lady has some learning to do… Hopefully, I’ll understand what to do and stay safe… Thank you for your input… Maybe that will set me in the right direction.
Have a great day, and thank you for following this.
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Hi @96isaiah,
I would also urge you to try Firefox. If it doesn’t meet your needs, then you can look to other options. You should try it. I added my note to possibly help with troubleshooting your issue, but more to build knowledge about possible trouble points with these security certificate warnings. The internet has many steps that happen just to load a web page; there are so many links in the chain that it’s often hard to know which one is the weak one. And this issue, the DNS issue, doesn’t necessarily have to do with Firefox. It’s complicated.
I was heading off to college when Firefox was first released. I was so proud to use it in its first version: I was using cutting-edge open-source software, plus it was a lot better browser than the competition at that point. I recommended it to everyone that cared and a lot of people that didn’t care for my recommendation. I’d still highly recommend it for you, too!
One of my speeches in a speech class was, sadly in retrospect, about Firefox and how it was much more secure than Internet Explorer. That was a long time ago, but it remains a great option. Give it a try!
Good luck and keep up with us!
Jesse -
Hi Jesse –
Thanks so much for your thoughtful input here. It will be helpful when other members are searching about this topic as they may have a similar setup.
Your input is always welcomed, we are a community, after all :)
Neither myself or a coworker have been able to replicate the issue in IE which is why I suggested the change in settings a while back. I do agree, that a change in browser is probably the preferred course forward for @96isaiah.
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Hi Liz & Jesse,
I’ve been taking your advice and used FireFox and IE for surfing… First, IE continued its problem with disappearing padlocks… It also displayed one site with the padlock on the home page, but using links produced no padlock.
In FireFox, quite a few WP sites had a padlock with a yellow triangle caution on top of it… FireFox also put one Blogger site in the Favorites column, but other Blogger sites came up as they should, but with no padlock.
With all this experimenting, I think Jesse might be on the right track in considering settings, because surfing WP sites in FireFox should not show padlocks with caution signs… The sites visited were both wordpress.com and wordpress.org.
I think I’ve got to try and learn some more… But, a little bit of knowledge can be mighty dangerous… : ) …I feel it is necessary to do something, so will see if an old dog can learn new tricks…
Thank you both so much… If you come up with a solution to clean up the caution signs in FireFox, please let me know… In the mean time, have a great day.
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Hello @96isaiah,
I have two thoughts this morning as I wake up:
- You said earlier you like the Favorites or Bookmarks in IE. Say you choose your new preferred browser (unfortunately, as discussed, anything except IE since it won’t receive love from its developers anymore), it’s feasible to import your favorites from IE into whatever browser you want. Do a web search for something like, “Move favorites from IE to Firefox.” Then you’ll have those moved over.
- If you suspect it’s similar to my issue I described earlier, you’ll want to reach out to either your ISP or a person knowledgeable in network setup. Begin your troubleshooting by asking them to set up your router or modem to use Google’s DNS. If they don’t know what you’re asking about, you need to talk to someone who does. That’s the change I made to fix my issue. Unfortunately, DNS settings are complex—every computer may be configured to use its own DNS settings that need troubleshooting. If you have a different device, test it on your network to see how the security warnings might show up on it. Thus, this isn’t a surefire fix, it’s just one possibility and the one I did to fix my issue. Note, again, that doing this and testing it on IE probably won’t change anything. Please run your tests on your other browsers.
Good luck!
Have a great day yourself,
Jesse -
Hi Jesse,
Thank you so much for thinking about this — AND for adding your experience to this puzzle… As you note, so much depends on one’s personal setup… I will have to transfer my Favorites in IE and follow your advice because IE is on its way out… Because FireFox displays caution icons on their padlocks, I wonder about the wisdom of using FireFox as a default browser — even though I do use FireFox to post in WP.
I think I will reach out to our ISP next week… They do have some capable techs, who should be able to lead me in adjusting the settings in our router… They helped us a few years ago in going from a modem to a router…
I guess one reason I like IE is that it has understandable links and icons to help manage one’s Internet… It’s people friendly… But, these things seem “rather” hidden in Edge and even FireFox… At least they seem difficult for me to find… I have not tried Chrome, but heard that it is invasive…
I might even look into other browsers… If not even FireFox can produce a padlock without a caution sign, I’m not sure which browser will… And yet, a setting change in the router might be the only answer needed…
Thank you ever so much, Jesse, for showing me these possibilities to a resolution… I suspect that there are tons of other people shying away from WordPress sites because of issues like this… There should be a fix that helps everyone — whatever their modem or router setup is like…
It will take me awhile to plow through all this and learn how our ISP handles things… I will wait until next week to contact them, because their main tech should be on hand then…
Again, thank you, and have a wonderful weekend.
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