Website Problems

10/30/2019

A few readers have recently informed me that they are encountering the following message when they attempt to access this blog:

Your connection is not private

Attackers might be trying to steal your information from www.francisberger.com (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards). Learn more
NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID

I experienced this as well on Sunday, but have since had no trouble getting to the site. I have been trying to figure out what the problem may be, but have not succeeded in discovering the root cause. I highly doubt hacking is involved. I mean, you would have to be an awfully bored hacker to waste your time messing around with this meager blog. In any event, I will keep investigating the issue until I figure out what the actual problem is, but that could take a while as I am not the most tech savvy individual on the internet.

Any insights, suggestions, or advice concerning the error code above are welcome and would be much appreciated!

11 Comments

S.K. Orr link

10/30/2019 22:29:27

After two days of failed attempts, I was able to get to your blog just now, Francis. Seems to be working fine.

He said smugly, right before the entire interwebz went down..

William link

10/30/2019 22:30:10

You need an ssl certificate for your website. When installed, connections to your site are automatically encrypted. One can be had for free from letsencrypt.org

Francis Berger

10/31/2019 07:30:19

Thanks for the tip, William. I'll look into that.

Henry

10/31/2019 01:20:41

Your website generates a RSS file. This has links to your posts. it seems to be the URLS in these links are "https" links.
Meanwhile your website seems to be rendered in "http".
So the browser gives that warning.
's' stands for secure.

there may be two place in Settings for your blog software, that have to both specify, http or https, with no mismatch. most site are just going with https

10/31/2019 07:33:10

@Henry - Yes, I read about that, and the site is http, while many of the links are https. I'm trying to figure a way to resolve this, but Weebly's platform is extremely restrictive. The settings section doesn't let me see or do much. In any case, I'll keep exploring because I think what you've mentioned above is valid.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

10/31/2019 01:34:33

Just to add, probably if this is what is going on, after you fix it, RSS feeds will then show up as 'all unread', for those readers. I have experienced feeds every once in a while reverting like that. One just marks them as read. Not a big deal at all.

10/31/2019 01:45:10

maybe this

"Your github repo settings’ “Custom Domain” field HAS to have “www” in it, and it HAS to have “Enforce HTTPS” checked!"

from

https://medium.com/@monarchwadia/github-pages-setting-up-www-subdomain-with-ssl-https-aca9eca371d6

10/31/2019 07:34:51

@ HM - I appreciate the suggestions. I will look into what you have described in your comments. Thanks!

bruce charlton

10/31/2019 12:11:59

Frank - I've also had this message recently, but bypassed it via asking for more information. I suspect it is a form of harrassment due to your blog recently being linked from WRSA.

10/31/2019 12:36:09

@ Bruce - Yes, I bypassed in the same way you did. S.K. was one of the readers who informed me they had encountered the error message as well. Though I felt it was unlikely, I told him it may have been because of the WRSA links. It appears this is more likely than I first assumed.

11/3/2019 18:58:18

I received a comment from Stef, but I can't seem to find it anymore. In any case, thanks for the advice. Yes, it does seem to be a SSL misconfiguration issue, but I can't correct it on my own in Weebly. I'll have to contact someone at the company.

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