'Unable to verify security'

[#1]

A strange one. I tried to access my Virgin Money account yesterday afternoon on my laptop (W7) via my Firefox browser, and after sitting there with the little dot going backwards and forwards for a good five minutes I got 'unable to verify site' message up. Not a problem, I thought - I'll try it as the first site I visit in the morning, in case it was a cache/cookie problem, as they are both cleared by CCleaner before I shut down for the night.

So I tried it this morning - same result. The strange thing is, and the reason I'm posting this in case anyone can throw any light on the issue, I had no problems getting to the site on either my iPad or my Linux machine, again using FF.

Before you ask, all three machines are running the latest version of Firefox - I am religious in keeping such programs up-to-date, and they are all set to auto-update.

Edit: both my other bank sites open with no problem on the affected machine.

[#2]

@jab1 

Have you tried a different browser?

Do you know if Virgin Money are refusing to connect to computers running obsolete unsupported operating systems such as Win 7?

[#3]

Thanks for the quick reply @Baldrick1 . Had I not been able to connect via either of my other two machines, I would have tried a different browser, but as far as I know, VM have not stopped supporting older OS's - a friend of mine still uses XP, and has not reported any problems accessing her VM account recently.

I will go and see what, if anything, I can find out about the subject later tonight. Note: I don't think that is the problem - it wouldn't even open the main site, going through Google.

[#4]

@jab1 John,

I've just accessed a Virgin money savings account successfully from my Win10 lappie using FF Vn 84.0.1

Like you, I suspect,  I would normally use my Linux desktop for banking etc

@Baldrick1 

Do you know if Virgin Money are refusing to connect to computers running obsolete unsupported operating systems such as Win 7?

That's a possibility I suppose...

[#5]

@Baldrick1  @MisterW  No VM links in Google will connect. If I speak to my friend in the morning, I'll ask her if she can connect, if not, I have a direct link to Virgins online banking team, who said if I had further problems to ring them and they would put me through to their IT.

Can't find any authoritative info on supported OSes.

[#6]

John,

Are all the links https: ? they look like it to me.

Sounds like it can't negotiate an acceptable https protocol with your w7 box

Check that TLS 1.2 is enabled https://manage.accuwebhosting.com/knowledgebase/3008/How-do-I-enable-TLS-1-2-on-Windows-7.html

[#7]

Yes, they are, @MisterW . I think your https protocol suggestion is probably correct. I'll see what my friend says tomorrow, and if she can connect, I'll speak with their IT.

Unfortunately, I forgot to screenshot the error message yesterday, and didn't give it long enough to pop up today, but IIRC there was a 'more information' link on it, which I didn't expand - rather unusual for me, but I had quite a bit of other stuff I had to complete yesterday evening.

EDIT: I'll check your link tomorrow, got a bit of my mini-migraine coming on at the moment.

[jab1]

Hi jab1       Have you seen this from yesterday is it something similar 

https://community.plus.net/t5/ADSL-Broadband/Unable-to-Access-Specific-Website/m-p/1784017

HD

[#9]

@Anonymous Strangely, I did, and was going to try and follow it up, but got distracted.

[#10]

An update for anyone still interested: I had my friend on XP check this for me this morning, and she had no problem accessing the site. This kind of leads me to think it is something unique to my laptop, but not being that clever on this type of error, I can't think what, especially given that it has worked previously within the last couple of months.

Not a major issue, as I can use either of my other machines, but it would be good to solve it, just because I don't like things that should work not doing so.

@MisterW Not tried your link yet as I've been otherwise engaged, but given the above, is it likely to be the problem?

[#11]

@jab1 John, Well I thought it probably was but then I had a thought...

I have a w7 machine in the office, VNC'd to it and could connect to https://uk.virginmoney.com no problem.

I checked the registry from my link and I don't have TLS 1.2 enabled , just SSL 2.0 , disabled by default

Here's the registry extract from my machine for comparison

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Client]
"DisabledByDefault"=dword:00000001

[#12]

Cheers, @MisterW . As I solved the problem - by using the Linux machine - it is no longer a major problem, although I'd love to solve it.

I have quite a bit on today, but will probably have a hunt around tomorrow, just to see if it is solvable - thanks for taking the time to look at this though.

Strange it is just this one https site that won't connect - for me - on this specific machine, given that it has done previously.😕

[#13]

Have you checked the date and time on your machine @jab1 ? 

[#14]

I have, @Mook , and it is within 4 seconds of a clock that gets a radio signal.I did wonder about that at first, but I have a couple of other programs which have failed to operate correctly on a wrong tine.

[#15]

---

@MisterW wrote:

@jab1 John, Well I thought it probably was but then I had a thought...

I have a w7 machine in the office, VNC'd to it and could connect to https://uk.virginmoney.com no problem.

I checked the registry from my link and I don't have TLS 1.2 enabled , just SSL 2.0 , disabled by default

Here's the registry extract from my machine for comparison

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Client]
"DisabledByDefault"=dword:00000001

---

Your settings are exactly the same as mine, but even after enabling TLS 1.2 (thanks for the link, btw), it still didn't work, so I've reverted.

As I said above though, it isn't a problem, just a conundrum, because it works on the Linux and iPad platforms.