Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Why do I get an "untrusted connection" message when trying to access Google?

  • 5 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 17 views
  • Last reply by Mozilissues

Mozilissues
Mozilissues
more options

This seems to happen a few times a week. Usually, I'm trying to do a search, and then no Google sites will work - mail, maps, whatever. I have a Mac, my time zone is correct, and I never add an exception because I don't understand why Google of all sites would have a faulty certificate, and it usually begins working again after several minutes. Usually, the problem is that the certificate belongs to another site. Today, it said the security certificate belonged to Adver.tv or something similar. What is going on? This almost never happens with other sites - just Google. The one exception I can recall occurred when I was attempting to file my taxes online using TaxAct, which seemed even more suspicious.

This seems to happen a few times a week. Usually, I'm trying to do a search, and then no Google sites will work - mail, maps, whatever. I have a Mac, my time zone is correct, and I never add an exception because I don't understand why Google of all sites would have a faulty certificate, and it usually begins working again after several minutes. Usually, the problem is that the certificate belongs to another site. Today, it said the security certificate belonged to Adver.tv or something similar. What is going on? This almost never happens with other sites - just Google. The one exception I can recall occurred when I was attempting to file my taxes online using TaxAct, which seemed even more suspicious.

All Replies (5)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

That sounds very suspicious!

Could you investigate your extensions and disable or remove ALL nonessential or unrecognized extensions on the Add-ons page. Either:

  • Command+Shift+a
  • "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions. Then, if in doubt, disable.

Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.

Does that make any difference? Perhaps it will take time to know.

Also, please check your connection settings. Open the Preferences dialog to the Advanced panel here:

"3-bar" menu button (or Firefox menu) > Preferences > Advanced > Network mini-tab > "Settings" button

On Windows, this defaults to "Use system proxy settings" -- I don't know what is normal on a Mac, but it may be similar to Windows. You also could try "No proxy" and see whether that makes any difference.

Mozilissues
Mozilissues Question owner
more options

Thanks for your response. I went ahead and disabled all non-essential extensions, as well as setting my Network connection to "No proxy" and that doesn't seem to solve the problem. Again today I ran into the same issue, with Firefox warning that Google had an untrusted certificate. This time, the cert was issued to a "guzzoni.apple.com." WTF?

I should also note that I tried using Safari, and I had the same problem, so it appear that this might not be tied to the browser. What would that mean?

FredMcD
FredMcD
more options

Please scan your system.

http://www.clamxav.com/ free malware scanner for Mac OS X https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3291

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

You might want to use an Apple forum regarding how to check whether your DNS settings have been hijacked.

Mozilissues
Mozilissues Question owner
more options

I did a scan with clamxav. It says my system is clean. The problem has repeated a few more times today; still with google. The one workaround I've been able to find is that if I shut off Airport, and then reconnect to the internet, it seems to work. I did that once and it worked, but a while later, the error message returned.