hi, first please make sure that the date, time & timezone are set correctly on your system. if this doesn't solve the issue (or it is already set properly), a possible solution depends on different factors:

• what is the error code shown under technical details on the error page?

in case the error code equals sec_error_unknown_issuer, please attempt to inspect the failing certificate to see who is its issuer:

enter chrome://pippki/content/exceptionDialog.xul into the location bar, and in the page that opens, set the server location to "https://www.google.com" in order to retrieve and view the certificate like in the attached screenshot.

• which issuer information does the certificate contain?

please report back with those two pieces of information. thank you!

i received a reply in my email from phillip, but i can't reply in email, so here is the information that he requested.

www.google.com

utilizza un certificato di sicurezza non valido. Il certificato non è attendibile in quanto l’autorità emittente è sconosciuta. Il server potrebbe non aver inviato i certificati intermedi richiesti. Potrebbe essere necessario importare un certificato radice aggiuntivo. (Codice di errore: sec_error_unknown_issuer)

this is the error code on the notification that i get. my time and time zone are correctly set (i am in italy). there is no other information available in the dialog window. let me know if you need me to translate these messages for you.

then you, then please proceed with the second part of my prior answer in order to inspect who is the issuer of the failing certificate.

i forgot to mention that it does not give me the option to view the certificate of the site. the only possible action available on my error notification is to close the page.

• enter chrome://pippki/content/exceptionDialog.xul into the location bar
• in the page that opens, set the server location to "https://www.google.com" and click on get certificate in order to retrieve it
• click on the view button in order to inspect the certificate
• what is mentioned in the issuer section of the cert?

i tried your second suggestion to see the security certification, and the reply was unknown identity. i tried with 2 other sites as well and got the same response. it looks like firefox is not recognizing the information it is receiving from the sites.

ok, then please try the following since you appear to be a kaspersky user, which sometimes interferes in this regard: could go into the kaspersky settings > additional > network settings and disable the scanning of encrypted connections there.

also, since you have a user.js file present in your profile which is usually a sign of adware/malware on a system:

1. reset firefox (this will keep your bookmarks and passwords)
2. run a full scan of your system with different security tools like the free version of malwarebytes and adwcleaner to make sure that adware isn't present in other places of your system as well.

Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

great news. just now all the scans finished and i did a restart.... seems ok now. thanks for the help. sorry for the yelling and cursing (you didn't hear the cursing, but i did it).