Troubleshooting a “Your Connection is Not Private” Error: My Ongoing Challenge

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all doing well. Today, I want to share an unexpected technical conundrum that has puzzled me despite my nearly three years of experience in Tech Support. It seems that even the most seasoned in the field can face unexpected hurdles!

Recently, I have been experiencing an alarming issue while using an Ethernet connection. Whether I’m navigating to a news site or streaming a video, every single website I attempt to visit presents me with the dreaded warning message:

“Your connection is not private”

It continues with a cautionary note indicating that “attackers might be trying to steal your information from [the website URL].” To top it off, the error code displayed is NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID. At the moment, I’m relying on Wi-Fi, which works seamlessly, but I’m eager to resolve the Ethernet issue.

In my quest for a solution, I have tried a variety of troubleshooting steps:

• Adjusted the system date and time
• Cleared my browser’s cache and cookies, including in Incognito mode
• Tested multiple browsers
• Executed a Winsock reset and DNS flush
• Restarted the router and switched Ethernet ports (noting that my PC is the only one connected via Ethernet)
• Manually set both IP address and DNS
• Verified that proxy settings are correct
• Cleared the SSL state
• Reinstalled my network drivers
• Attempted to modify the Chrome shortcut with the “-ignore-certificate-errors” option
• Ensured that there is no antivirus interference, and disabled Windows Defender as a precaution

My setup includes an ASUS B450-F Gaming motherboard, a Ryzen 2700x CPU, Windows 10 x64 v1809, and a Gigabyte RTX 2080 GPU. Despite these thorough efforts, I have yet to find a solution to the problem.

Fortunately, after a bit more investigation, I found the resolution: I flashed the router with the latest firmware and reset it to factory defaults. Sometimes, a simple reset is all it takes to resolve connectivity issues!

If anyone else finds themselves in a similar predicament or has additional insights, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thank you!