There’s nothing like an error notice that stops your work – particularly if there is security. A note that reads, ‘This site can’t provide a secure connection’ may be misleading and scary. It also can be disruptive if you receive it on your MAMP installation since these pages often are locally tested.
This usually involves a web browser or the SSL certificate of your website. Luckily, it is rather easy to correct it. It could be as easy as emptying the cache from your browser.
First question that arises in mind is, what exactly is a “secure link?” It’s just an HTTPS rather than an HTTP link to a website. Most browsers show these sites in the address bar with a padlock icon, which shows that the link is safe. HTTPS offers significant security improvements compared with HTTP, but also severe compliance requirements. A valid SSL certificate is one of them.
A problem with the SSL certificate can cause various SSL connection errors, including the ‘This site can’t provide a secure connection’ error, SSL_ERROR_NO_CYPHER_OVERLAP, SSL Handshake Failed Error, etc.
In other words, the website claims to comply with HTTPS but does not supply or utilize an invalid certificate. The browser will not load the site and will display the error notice instead if the certificate can’t be confirmed.
Let us investigate the most common reasons for this notification of error:
- There is no SSL certificate in your local environment. You probably don’t have a certificate for your website if you use a local environment like MAMP. This should be the initial step in resolving your problem since it probably is the reason for your problem.
- The browser’s outdated SSL caches. This is one of the most prevalent reasons for the error. Web browsers, store SSL certificates in a cache, like other data. It means that every visit to a site that speeds up browsing does not require them to authenticate the certificate. However, it can create that issue if your SSL certificate changes and the browser still loads an earlier, cached version.
- Setting your computer incorrect time and date. It can cause problems with the authentication of an SSL certificate if your computer is configured to the wrong date and time. Luckily, this has quite a simple solution.
- Extensions to the browser. A browser extension that is not properly configured or malfunctioning can potentially cause authentication problems. This may be nefarious, but it is a simple code mistake most typically.
- SSL certificate invalid or expires. This message can be seen if the SSL certificate of your website expires or is invalid. Certificates must be regularly renewed.
Fix 1: Clearing the browsing data, including cookies and cache.
Often SSL certificate difficulties are caused by browser cache and cookies. First, in your browser, it is recommended to clear cache and cookies, and you can do it as follows:
Step 1: Click on Ctrl+Shift+Delete
(or go to the chrome:/settings/clearBrowserData address) in Chrome
Step 2: Now choose the time period (all times) and click on the Clear data button.
Fix 2: Disabling the browser’s extensions.
It is also proposed that the third-party browser extensions, in particular anonymizers, proxies, VPNs, antivirus extensions, and other similar add-ons that could interfere with traffic on the destination website are discarded (deleted). To delete these extensions, you must follow the given steps:
Step 1: Click on three vertical menu dots from the top right corner and then go to More tools and click on Extensions.
Step 2: You can examine the list of enabled Chrome extensions or browse to chrome://extensions/. Disable any uncertain extensions.
Fix 3: Checking the time and date settings of the device.
Wrong time or date on your machine, or time area, may also lead to secure HTTPS website connection issues. When the certificate has been created, when the certificate has expired, and when the certificate of the higher certificate authority has expired, your system checks the time and date during authentication.
Make sure you’ve set the right time and time zone. If not, follow the steps as specified below:
Step 1: Go to the date and time display on the system’s bottom right corner.
Step 2: Click on Change date and time settings and then alter the time zone if it is incorrect.
Fix 4: Disabling the QUIC protocol.
Ensure that QUIC support is enabled in Chrome (Quick UDP Internet Connections). QUIC makes it possible to establish the connection faster, and when you connect to a site, negotiates all TLS (HTTPS) settings. In some circumstances, however, SSL connections may have complications. Try deactivating QUIC by following the given steps:
Step 1: Type chrome://flags/#enable-quic on the chrome search bar
Step 2: Find the Experimental QUIC protocol option and then change its value from Default to Disabled
Step 3: Now restart Chrome to make the changes applicable
Fix 5: Enabling the SSL and TLS protocol.
And lastly, TLS and SSL protocol support may be sufficient to remedy the problem. This is the most effective in most circumstances. Activating these protocols affects your internet security without contemplation hence you should not use this strategy unless otherwise.
When an SSL/TLS version is used previously, a user sees the secure connection error as the client/browser supports it. To enable the existing versions of the SSL / TLS protocol (remember that this is not safe), follow the steps mentioned below:
Step 1: Open the control panel and then move to the internet options
Step 2: Move on to the advanced tab and then enable TLS 1.2, TLS 1.1, and TLS 1.0 and if it is not sufficient then also enable SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0.
Step 3: Restart the browser to see if the error vanishes or not.
If neither of these methods helped to eliminate the error “This site can’t provide a secure connection”, try the following:
Step 1: Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\host and ensure that no static records are present there.
Step 2: Move to the control panel and then internet options and ensure that the internet zone’s security level is medium or medium-high. If you have previously selected as high, that might have been blocking several SSL connections for the browser.
Step 3: Now open the chrome browser again and then type (chrome://flags) in the search bar
Step 4: Search for TLS 1.3 parameter and then ensure that it is enabled or set to default.
Conclusion
The notice “This site cannot provide a safe connection” in MAMP not only prohibits your website from being accessed, but it may also be of concern for the security consequences. It’s typically benign and rather simple to correct, fortunately.
This mistake normally suggests either a configuration problem on your browser or an SSL certificate on your website (usually, it means that you don’t have one at all on localhost). You should be able to solve this mistake fast by following the preceding recommendations so that you may return to business.
