Macbook Pro 2011, El Capitan, Browser "connection is not private"
Hi,
I know there are many threads on this but I've been stuck for several hours trying to resolve this. If anybody has a solution I would greatly appreciate it. Only reason I'm keeping this macbook is as a web browsing station but it's about to go into the trash here if this one little issue can't be resolved. : \ Thanks for looking.
Problem:
Browsers can't access commonly known secure sites, like wikipedia.org and many (most) others without getting a "connection is not private" error. I've tried every remedy I've read about.
Details:
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011, 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5)
- OS El Capitan, 10.11.6
- Error occurs on both Safari (Version 11.1.2 (11605.3.8.1), and Chrome (Ver 95.0.4638.69, 64bit)
- Firefox too
- Issue began about 3 months ago, abruptly (not sure what events led up to it)
- Specific error code for "wikipedia.org" is: "NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID"
Troubleshooting attempts performed:
- Confirmed it is not a clock issue (manually reset, and then auto set it back to current)
- Is not a mac profile/user issue. Logging in as another user on same machine yields same issue.
- Is not an OS update issue. Ran all El Capitan updates up to latest version including Safari updates.
- Is not a Verisign Certificate issue (pretty sure). Verified that same Certs exist on my other mac which works fine
- Note, there were some old Verisign certs, several of them labeled (G3, G4, & G5), which seemed suspicious (this mac does have some legacy data on it). However, same certs appear on my newer mac (2015 running Catalina) that does not have same issue or history.
- Is not a wifi issue (running other machines in my house with no issue)
- Is not a firewall or security program. There is no security software on this machine. And, I disabled mac firewalls. Same issue.
- Is not a cache issue. Cleared all cookies and cache. That shouldn't matter anyhow because issue occurs for all mac user accounts, all browsers, and all google chrome users, etc.
I'm about at my wits end here. As mentioned, if I can't fix the problem, the mac is toast for its purpose here.
Other oddities:
I also have Login items issues, wherein Chrome and Spotify open at start, even though they're not in login items, AND, their app preferences aren't set to behave this way. Not sure if there's a plist and or pram /nvram issue or other hardware issue going on.
Any suggestions outside of the ones above?
Thanks much,
Mike
