New Site Security.

[boatbuilder]

I am pleased to advise that with effect from tonight, this site now has SSL installed and has a valid SSL Certificate.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term, this means that all personal information stored on the website such as email addresses, passwords, etc., is now encrypted for your security. You will see this from the details in the address bar which now displays the 'padlock' symbol and in some browsers the address will be preceded by 'https'.

Two examples are in the image below. The top one is from Google Chrome and the other from Microsoft Edge. You should always see the 'padlock' symbol somewhere in the address bar which signifies a secure connection, even if you don't see the 'https' displayed, except as explained below.

Please note: If there are any links within a post on a displayed page that link to an external website for the purpose of displaying an image or other data from that site within any post that you or any other member has made, even if it is only an emoticon/smiley, and the website linked to is not a secure one, then the 'padlock' icon will not be displayed on that particular page, although the MyLowestoft website will still be secure as far as any personal data is concerned and the 'https' prefix will still be displayed in the browsers that show it. If you are using a browser where the 'https' does not show (e.g. 'Edge') then clicking on the address in the address bar should show it up.

Secure Socket Layer.JPG (20.44 KiB) Viewed 1147 times

[boatbuilder]

It is exactly one year today that I added an SSL security certificate to this website.

Now it is possible that if you tried to access the forum after midnight last night/this morning, you may have encountered a security problem. This seems to be as the result of the renewal of the SSL certificate which should have renewed at midnight on 14th/15th November. I paid for this renewal two weeks ago and was, to say the least, annoyed when I found that after midnight on the 14th there were problems accessing the site. I subsequently spent 50 minutes chatting online with a member of the support team at the hosting company in the US who has assured me that the problem will be resolved shortly.

As I write this it has not been resolved. Now that might seem strange as I am accessing the site to write this. However, I decided to roll my computer's date back 24 hours and it currently reads 02:41 on the 14th November rather than on the 15th and I'm having no trouble accessing the site. It would seem to me that the certificate will not renew in the UK until the time in the USA passes midnight where the forum is hosted (Massachusetts) which will not be until 05:00 GMT today which, as far as I am concerned shouldn't be the case. By changing the date on my computer to 24 hours earlier, I appear to have 'fooled' the system into thinking I am in a different time zone on the 14th so it is allowing me to access the site without telling me there is a security problem.

I certainly don't agree with the way this works and intend to follow this through with the hosting company once I know that the certificate has successfully renewed which, as I said, should be at 05:00 GMT today. After all, had this been a business website accepting orders for goods, the business could have potentially lost 5 hours worth of business from within the UK.

Hopefully at 5-am all will be back to normal on here in the UK.

[boatbuilder]

After more time spent 'talking' to the hosting company this morning, this issue is now resolved.

I am not happy about it as there shouldn't have been any break in the SSL Certificate when it was paid for two weeks in advance.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

[funkychick]

Just to clarify as you said you didn’t think it affected iPad or iPhones well I couldn’t get on using my iPad this morning
Seems fine now thanks

[boatbuilder]

That's strange as mine kept showing the padlock as though there was noting amiss. I see from the data on the whois online page that you're OS is 11.0.3. Mine has the latest update 11.1.1 so whether or not that has anything to do with it I don't know, although my iPhone only runs on 10.3.3. as it's a 5c and it doesn't update any further than that and that seemed to work as well. Most mysterious!!!

[Dave]

I couldn't get onto the website using my laptop or iPad, boatbuilder, although a couple of times the home page came up but when I clicked a Forum it just gave me the same security message. I found this site that tells you if the site you want is down or not. Part of the message I got mentioned hackers so it's nice to know it's a genuine problem.

[boatbuilder]

I did send you an email this morning at 9:57 Dave to advise you of the problem. Did you receive it?

[Dave]

I did get it, boatbuilder, but I didn't see it until this afternoon.

[nikkai]

I had the same issue on the Windows laptop and my AV just blocked the site (not given an opportunity to pick for myself)
Then this evening I read BB's mail (didn't load it on phone at work) and now as you can see I am back on even though I did clear my system and search the AV to see if I could undo it's action but no problem as our greatest boffin got it all sorted out for us

THANK YOU BB

[boatbuilder]

That was part of my 'frustrations' today nikkai.

[nikkai]

Glad you used some of the magic fairy dust to correct the PITA

[boatbuilder]

Glad you used some of the magic fairy dust to correct the PITA

I'm wondering which Acronym you mean, nikkai?

PITA
Pain In the Ass

PITA
Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association

PITA
Palestinian Information Technology Association

[nikkai]

Now I could lie and say it is this or that but your first thought is correct

[boatbuilder]

It had to be.