Safari and Chrome cannot establish a secure connection to websites. What do I do?

Question

Level 1

8 points

Safari and Chrome cannot establish a secure connection to websites. What do I do?

For the past week or so neither Safari nor Chrome is able to open certain websites. For example, if I type in 'yahoo.com' or 'photos.google.com' in the address bar, it tries loading the page for a few seconds and then shows the error: 'Safari can't open the page' or 'This site can't be reached' (in Chrome). The reason given by the browsers is that it either can't establish a secure connection or the connection timed out. Sometimes it can't load a page because "the server where the page is located isn't responding".

Another thing I'd like to mention is that I changed my Firewall Options recently. While changing that I did remove two services from the list shown in the Firewall Options pane. I only remember that they were services run by Apple apps/software. Just thought I'd mention it in case that had anything to do with my issue.

I'm using a mid-2014, 13-inch MacBook Pro that runs macOS 10.13.4 (High Sierra; Build: 17E202) and Safari 11.1.

*My proxy setting is set to automatic.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.4), null

Posted on May 31, 2018 2:00 AM

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Answer 1

dominic23

Level 10

84,018 points

May 31, 2018 5:06 AM in response to ash185

1. If Safari says it can't establish a secure connection, or the website is using weak encryption

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204937

2. macOS Sierra: Set the date and time on your Mac

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25523?locale=en_US

3. Uninstall any anti-virus software like Avast installed on your Mac

4. If you can’t open a website in Safari

https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/if-you-cant-open-a-website-in-safari-ibrw 1071/mac

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

May 31, 2018 7:22 AM in response to ash185

Safari – slow page loads

Safari - Unsupported third-party add-ons may cause Safari to unexpectedly quit or have performance issues

Safari doesn't load a page or webpage items are missing

Web Content not responding

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. Also try the Safe Mode.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

Safe Mode - About

Safe Mode Startup – El Capitan. also Sierra

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