How to View Secure Websites

Learn how to access and view secure websites.

Every once in a while, you may have a problem trying to access and view secure sites. Because there are different reasons why you may be unable to view and access a secure website, you may need to try different methods to find the one that will fix your particular problem.

Instructions

1. Diagnose the problem. To do this, try to open another secure website to determine whether the problem lies with the particular website you are trying to access, or whether you are unable to access any other one. If you are unable to open just that one website but can access other sites, then the problem lies with that particular website's security certificate. In this case, there isn't much you can do other than contacting the site's Webmaster.

2. If you are unable to access any other secure website, then the problem probably lies with Internet Explorer. If so, a pop-up box (such as the one in the image) will open, bearing a security alert indicating that the security certificate has expired and not valid. In this case, you may need to change the date and time settings on your computer. Here's how:*Double-click the time on the bottom-right corner of your screen. *Correct any errors you may have and then click on "OK." *Try once again to open the secure website that you couldn't access before. If not, move on to Step 3.

3. Check your antiviral and firewall settings. You may need to re-set your privacy controls, security settings and/or re-install your firewall. Here's how to do so (we'll use the Norton Personal Firewall as our example):*Open the Norton Personal Firewall application. Click on the "Privacy Control button," and then click on "Configure." *Choose the "Default" level and then click "OK."*Re-start your PC and try once again to access the secure website. *If you still can't access the website, temporarily disable your firewall application and try once more to access the website. If you can access the site with the firewall disabled, then you may need to re-install your firewall.

4. Check on your browser's cipher strength:*Open your Internet Explorer. Click on About. *Go to the section labeled Cipher Strength in the "About" screen that opens. *Check to see if the Cipher strength is 128-bit. If it is anything other than 128-bit, then the problem may be caused by the security settings of your Internet Explorer, and changing them may fix it. If not, move on to Step 5.

5. 

   Download and run IEFix. IEFix is a general purpose utility designed to fix problems associated with Internet Explorer. *Download IEFix (See Resources below for the download link). *Click on "Save" and then save the program to your desktop. *Double-click the downloaded file to run it. Click on the "Apply" button. You should now be able to access the secure site.