Is something going on with MSN?

[maxthedork]

I use a Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail accounts for testing our email system here at the college. When I open Firefox in the morning, it's set to automatically open tabs for the three email services plus a couple other pages (this forum being one of them). Last week, I started getting a message about an unverified certificate from MSN. Thinking that Microsoft wouldn't POSSIBLY put out an unsigned and unverified certificate, I opted to NOT accept the certificate and left my email un-logged in. I did that all last week.

Monday, I had some email problems I had to test, and I went ahead and logged in (after NOT accepting the certificate), and all seemed to be well. I figured I'd get the certificate error the next time I opened Firefox.

Not so! Yesterday I opened Firefox and it automatically logged me into MSN. Then, yesterday afternoon all of a sudden I noticed my machine was running WAY below par. The mouse was choppy and sluggish, Explorer took nearly 5 minutes to open, and then clicking on a folder took about a minute to display the file listing. It was as if the computer just said "Eff You, I'm tired." So I opened Task Manager to see what the offending process was, and lo and behold, Firefox was sucking up 89% of the CPU, which was all of the available overhead. I went into Firefox, and with Task Manager still open, I started closing tabs one by one. I only had six open at the time, which is the number that opens with Firefox. I closed my home page, usenet groups, this forum, then Gmail, no effect. Then I closed MSN, and the usage dropped IMMEDIATELY.

I've been looking around to see if MSN got nailed with anything nasty but I haven't seen anything online yet. So my question is, has anyone else see this behavior? And if so, Dubya-Tee-Eff? I'm still bothered that Microsoft was issuing an unsigned and unverified certificate, that just doesn't seem right at all. Thoughts?

 

[maxthedork]

So, no one has seen this activity at all?

 

[satrow]

You may be experiencing a problem because of an add-in; if you use Adblocker, disable that first then work your way through the others to test.

 

[maxthedork]

I could see that, but it still doesn't explaind why I'm getting an unsigned certificate from Hotmail. Doesn't that seem odd?

 

[satrow]

It does seem odd.

We're just past a Windows Update, can you check that they all installed correctly? Your PC may be missing a file (or a corrupt one) which is causing this error?

 

[maxthedork]

Our windows Updates are done through WSUS, which I administer, and this PC did not miss any of the latest patches. Checking the install log, I see no errors at all.

Also, this all started on Monday, the 10th, which was the day before Patch Tuesday.

 

[satrow]

Hmm, Mozilla uses its own security checks, could your Firefox profile be corrupt?

Can you create a new profile or start Firefox in Safe Mode and see if it makes a difference?

Does the security issue occur if you use IE or Opera, for instance?

 

[maxthedork]

I haven't had this issue since yesterday, it only happened the one time. But I'm still concerned about that cert. I just didn't know if it's something other people were seeing or if I'm the only one. As I haven't seen any comotion about it on the normal channels (and when it's Microsoft, you know there'd be barking) so I'm assuming it was just me.

 

[maxthedork]

I'm bringing this back up because I've got the certificate issue again. It definitely seems more than a little odd that Microsoft would be issuing an untrusted certificate. These are the messages I'm getting from MSN:

Untrusted certificate source

Certificate details

I mean, doesn't it seem strange that Microsoft would be issuing an untrusted certificate? That makes NO sense whatsoever and it definitely sends up the red flags.

 

[nightrax]

This might be able to shed some light on your problems:

http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=5089

Hope this helps !!

Like cellotape, im on a roll and take drugs not candy from strangers...

 

[maxthedork]

Aha, that answers that question. Thanks! I knew Microsoft wouldn't be issuing an untrusted certificate.

 

[BadBigBen]

Hmmm.... an Article about a bug that is TWO years old?

I don't think that is the solution...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[Sympology]

Microsoft are updating many of their sites to "Live". Maybe it's something to do with this. Have you opted for Hotmail Live beta?


Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[linney]

Is the date and time of your machine correct?

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showthread.php?t=207875

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...668f6e1ec45?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1#d8a4b668f6e1ec45

"Automatic updating of trusted root authorities" is an Help and Support program article.

Trusted Root Certificates That Are Required By Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293781

Secure Site Root Certificate Update
thread608-746263

Secure Sites Update
thread779-746272

Internet Explorer Connectivity and Certificate Display Issues

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811383&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Customer Care Centre

http://www.msn.co.uk/customercare/bestsupport/Default.asp?MSPSA=1