Trouble with site certificate

[Longhorn]

The last couple of times I've tried to get to my account on Amazon, a warning pops up that the site certificate has expired. When I click to proceed, the window won't close and I can't even close the IE window. I have to use Ctrl+Alt+Del to shut it down and the message there is that the site is waiting for a response from me. I was able to get onto the site on my desktop so I know it's not a problem with the site.

I've never had this problem before. I shut down my firewall and still couldn't get on. I've also rebooted. The only recent change is that I let my McAfee anti-virus and anti-spam subscriptions expire since I am now getting free firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spam services from my ISP, Roadrunner. Until this week, both have been running so I didn't actually replace one with the other -- just ended the double coverage.

Thanks for your help!

[charlie]

1. Maybe disabling IE's certificate checking?

Tools --> Internet Options --> Advanced

Scroll to the bottom and uncheck the selections for certificates. Try to remember which you've changed so you can restore them after visiting Amazon. (...and this'll sound silly, but I'll say it just in case. Make sure you're really at Amazon after doing this, that is, go there directly through your address bar and not by clickthrough from a link on a page. You don't want to get spoofed into giving up your account info)

[Longhorn]

2. Thanks but it didn't work. :(

I knew there was someplace to disable that certificate business so thanks for directing me to it. However, I tried again and got the same message which then freezes up the window. I rebooted and it still comes up, even with the firewall turned off. I got the message at another site (before I disabled the certificate alert) but all I had to do was click to proceed and the message went away, no problem. But not on Amazon.

I understand your warning about not responding to links in emails and such. I knew about it but it's a good idea not to take chances! :D

[Longhorn]

3. I found the problem with the help of Netscape.

I decided to see if I had the same problem with Netscape and the same error messages did pop up. However, the Netscape error message actually told me to check my clock setting, that it was set to December 23, 2005. I must have accidentally changed it when I was using it as a calendar. Once I reset my clock to the correct date, no more expired certificate errors.

I was living in the future and didn't even realize it! :)