Why does Amazon no longer work in Safari?

First of all, this is a Support Community for the iMac, not Safari and certainly not for the Amazon website. There is a vibrant community here for Safari, and I'm sure that you could ask your question there and get a quicker response.

Having one website not being responsive is something that is not a hardware issue and is most certainly something that needs to be diagnosed through several steps with an informed Safari user.

Not, IMO, a very helpful reply from OrangeMartin.

It could, like it says, be a temporary glitch at Amazon's end. Are you still having the problem?

If you are:

Apple barred Java from running on Macs, leaving companies that rely on Java plug-ins out in the cold.

Apple blocked Java 7 Update 11 by adding it to the banned list in XProtect.

This was the second time in two weeks that Apple has blocked Oracle's code from running on Macs. This time Java is blocked through Apple's XProtect anti-malware feature.

Java has come under fire as the means by which hackers have been able to gain control of computers. In April 2012 more than 600,000 Macs were reported to have been infected with a Flashback Trojan horse that was being installed on people's computers with the help of Java exploits. Then in August Macs were again at risk due to a flaw in Java, this time around, there was good news for Mac users: Thanks to changes Apple has made, most of us were safe from the threat.

Unwilling to leave its customers open to potential threats Apple decided it's safer to block Java entirely.

Macs running OS X Snow Leopard and beyond are affected.

UPDATE for those running Lion or Mountain Lion:

Oracle on Friday February 1 released a new version reportedly addressing vulnerabilities seen with the last build.

Apple disabled Java 7 through the OS X XProtect anti-malware system, requiring users to have at least version "1.7.0_10-b19" installed on their Macs. The release dated February 1 carries the designation "1.7.0_13-b20," meeting Apple's requirements.

Oracle "strongly recommends" applying the CPU fixes as soon as possible, saying that the latest Critical Patch Update contains 50 new security fixes across all Jave SE products.

Update foror Snow Leopard users:

Apple have issued update 12 for Java for OS 10.6:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1573

Note: On systems that have not already installed Java for Mac OS X 10.6 update 9 or later, this update will configure web browsers to not automatically run Java applets. Java applets may be re-enabled by clicking the region labeled "Inactive plug-in" on a web page. If no applets have been run for an extended period of time, the Java web plug-in will deactivate.

First, there is no Java content on Amazon, so updating Java won't have any effect on your problem.

I've seen one other report like yours in the last couple of weeks, and I was unable to figure out what was causing it. I suggest you try another browser, such as Firefox, to access Amazon.

Not, IMO, a very helpful reply from Klaus1. As Linc Davis said, there is no Java on Amazon, but anyone who spent a nanosecond on Amazon would know that, as I did. But it was good to read a long treatise on Java that no one needs for Amazon.

When one person has a problem with one website, they will get better assistance from those who spend time helping people on the Safari community.

I think I figured out your problem with Amazon by checking with them (as I suggested). You apparently have a corrupted or invalid certificate in your keychain, so Amazon distrusts you. Amusing.

Here's how to fix that:

1. Go to: /Applications/Utilities/KeyChain Access
2. Select "KeyChain First Aid" from "KeyChain Access" (menu choice)
3. Make sure the radio button for "Verify" is selected, and then click the "Start" button.
4. Once completed, it will tell you if any problems were found just above "Verification Completed".
5. It is not necessary to perform a "repair" if no problems were found.
6. If problems were found, follow up the verification process with the "repair" process.

FYI: "KeyChain Access" stores info for Certificates. If a "mismatch" occurs, or a certificate is deamed "invalid" you get a warning. (This is part of your security). Performing "KeyChain First Aid" will verify ALL certificates and correct any "mismatching" by updating the certificate OR will tell you there was a problem (ie. a website using a fake certificate), in which case you need to follow through with "repair" and if necessary, not use the problematic website. BUT, in most cases, this message is NOT about anything malicious, its just part of the security settings that are trying to ensure ALL certificates associated to ANY website is correct, and since certificates expire and/or get updated, these conflicts can occur>

I can't explain why, but don't worry about it. Things will change soon.

There is one simple thing you can try that I didn't suggest in the other thread before it petered out:

Invalid security certificate for my...: Apple Support Communities

From the menu bar, select

 ▹ System Preferences... ▹ Network ▹ Advanced... ▹ DNS

Under DNS Servers you should have one or more numerical addresses, such as “192.168.1.1” or “10.0.0.1”. What are those addresses?

Adding Open DNS codes to your Network Preferences, should give good results in terms of speed-up as well as added security, (including anti-phishing and redirects) (Full information about Open DNS is here: http://www.opendns.com/home/nobloat ) and further independent information can be read here:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57338784-263/free-dnscrypt-tool-enhances-ma c-web-security/?tag=mncol;txt

and here:

http://www.macworld.com/article/1146064/troubleshootdns.html?t=234

Open System Preferences/Network. Double click on your connection type, or select it in the drop-down menu, and in the box marked 'DNS Servers' add the following two numbers:

208.67.222.222

208.67.220.220

(You can also enter them if you click on Advanced and then DNS)

When you use OpenDNS services, OpenDNS stores certain DNS, IP address and related information about you to improve the quality of our service, to provide you with OpenDNS services and for internal business and analysis purposes.

Concerning personal information, the policy states:

...[I]t is disclosed to entities that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other entities with whom we have joint marketing agreements...

You can't opt out of those disclosures.

The advantages of OpenDNS that are often touted on this site are mostly, if not entirely, mythical. It is almost certainly not any faster than your ISP's DNS servers. More likely, it's a little slower, though the difference is not going to be noticed either way.

ISP's do not intentionally redirect valid DNS queries, though it sometimes happens because of a misconfiguration. Your ISP may, and OpenDNS certainly will, redirect invalid queries to ad sites, in violation of published standards for DNS.

The claims on the OpenDNS website that it "blocks" malware attacks such as Flashback are false. A name service does not and cannot block anything. All it can do is to selectively block queries. It's trivial for a malware attacker to evade such blocks. It's just as easy to evade the parental controls offered by OpenDNS.

The one thing to be said for OpenDNS is that it doesn't seem to cause problems with the DNS prefetching performed by all modern web browsers, including Safari. The same can be said of Google DNS (which I'm not recommending either) and other, non-promoted, public name services such as Level3.

Linked below is a brief. somewhat outdated, critique of OpenDNS on a Harvard Law School blog, with a response from the company's founder:

OpenDNS and Firefox Search

You can safely ignore Lincs essay on Open DNS. It is entirely safe to use, is used by millions, has been for years, and even Apple recommend it!

You can safely the ignore the comments of peope who don't even know what DNS is, much less what DNS service you should use.