Troubleshooting a “Your Connection is Not Private” Error on Ethernet

Motherboard: Asus B450-F Gaming
Processor: Ryzen 2700x
Operating System: Windows 10 x64 version 1809
Graphics Card: Gigabyte RTX 2080

Hello Readers,

Today, I want to share a perplexing issue that I encountered while working as a tech support specialist for nearly three years. Despite my experience, I recently faced a challenge that left me scratching my head: an alarming message that displayed every time I attempted to browse the web on my Ethernet connection. The message read:

“Your connection is not private”

It continued with a warning about potential attacks aimed at stealing personal information such as passwords and credit card details. The accompanying error code was NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID. This is not something to take lightly, and it prompted me to delve deep into troubleshooting this problem.

Troubleshooting Steps I Tried:

In my quest for a solution, I attempted several strategies:

Date and Time Adjustment: Ensured that my system date and time were correctly set.
Cache and Cookies Clearance: Cleared browser cache and cookies, and also tried accessing sites in incognito mode.
Browser Variation: Tested the site across different web browsers.
Network Resets: Conducted a Winsock reset and performed a DNS flush.
Router Restart: Restarted the router and switched connection ports. Since I’m the only one using Ethernet, this seemed like a reasonable step.
Manual IP and DNS Configuration: Set a static IP and DNS settings manually.
Proxy Configuration Check: Verified the proxy settings to ensure none were inadvertently set.
SSL State Reset: Cleared the SSL state in the browser settings.
Network Driver Reinstallation: Uninstalled and then reinstalled my network drivers.
Chrome Shortcut Modification: Tried adding “-ignore-certificate-errors” to my Chrome shortcut to bypass the error.
Antivirus and Defender Settings: Made sure no antivirus software was interfering and even temporarily disabled Windows Defender.