How to Bypass: "There Is a Problem With This Website's Certificate"

Certificate warnings protect PCs but they sometimes block trusted sites.

Digital certificates are designed to match digital content with the content’s owner, creator or publisher. A certificate error means that a site’s digital signature and actual appearance do not match and the site may be misleading users by “phishing” for personal information. It isn’t usually a good idea to bypass these warnings but if you have firsthand knowledge that a site is trustworthy, you can bypass certificate mismatch problems.

Instructions

1. Click on the Windows “Start” orb in the lower left corner of your screen.

2. Click “Control Panel.” A new window opens on your screen.

3. Click “Network and Internet.”

4. Click “Internet Options,” then another window pops open.

5. Click on the “Advanced” tab at the top of the new window.

6. Scroll the “Settings” box and un-check the following boxes: “Use SSL 2.0,” “Use SSL 3.0,” “Use TLS 1.0,” “Use TLS 1.1,” “Use TLS 1.2” and “Warn about certificate mismatch.” Your TLS and SSL settings are for certificate management and disabling them bypasses most certificate problems.

7. Click “OK” to save these changes. You should be able to visit the site without getting a security certificate mismatch error.

References

• Microsoft Tech Net: Certificates; Jan De Clercq
• Microsoft: About Certificate Errors
• Windows 7: The Missing Manual; David Pogue
• SSL and TLS: Theory and Practice; Rolf Opplinger