Troubleshooting “Your Connection is Not Private” Error on Ethernet: A Personal Experience
In today’s digital world, encountering connection issues can be frustrating, especially for those of us who consider ourselves tech-savvy. After almost three years in tech support, I recently faced a peculiar problem that left me scratching my head: every website I tried to access on my Ethernet connection displayed a warning that read, “Your connection is not private,” accompanied by the error code “NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID.” While my Wi-Fi connection worked seamlessly, the Ethernet issue persisted no matter what site I visited.
The Warning Explained
The message warns that “attackers might be trying to steal your information,” including sensitive details like passwords and credit card information. As alarming as it sounds, the problem was not with the sites themselves, but rather with my connection.
Steps Taken to Resolve the Issue
Determined to fix the problem, I went through a comprehensive troubleshooting checklist. Here’s a rundown of the steps I undertook:
- Adjusted Date and Time Settings: An incorrect clock can lead to SSL certificate verification failures.
- Cleared Browser Cache and Cookies: Ensuring no corrupt data was stored could help, so I also tried accessing sites in Incognito mode.
- Tested Different Browsers: I checked if the issue persisted across various browsers.
- Executed Winsock Reset and DNS Flush: Refreshing these network settings can sometimes resolve connectivity issues.
- Restarted the Router and Changed Ports: I ensured my PC was the only device connected via Ethernet, but I switched the ports just in case.
- Manually Set IP and DNS: I configured these settings to rule out potential conflicts.
- Verified Proxy Settings: Ensuring that no erroneous proxy configurations were set helped eliminate another potential issue.
- Cleared SSL State: This can sometimes solve certificate-related problems.
- Reinstalled Network Drivers: Outdated or corrupted drivers can lead to connectivity issues, so I updated them.
- Edited Chrome Shortcut: I attempted to bypass certificate errors by adding “-ignore-certificate-errors” to the shortcut.
- Checked Security Software: I ensured that no antivirus programs or Windows Defender were interfering with my connection.
Despite all these efforts, the problem remained elusive.
The Final Solution
As a last resort, I decided to flash my router’s firmware and reset it
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