Firefox Secure Connection Failed Error

[Tyler2234]

I am the System Administrator at my company and we are currently in the process of getting a Linux server up and running. This is my first time doing anything with Linux. We have Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon installed with the 4.13.0.26 kernel.

When I try to browse in Firefox I keep getting the "Secure Connection Failed" error. However, I noticed that I was able to browse to certain sites. For instance I was able to get www.espn.com to load but I can't ever get Google or Yahoo to load. Any ideas what could be causing this? I downloaded the Chromium browser and am having the exact same problem with it.

-Tyler

[Cosmo.]

If espn works, but Google and Yahoo don't, there is the suspicion, that this has something to do with the secured or not secured (espn in this case) connection. As you have the same problem with 2 browsers it appears unlikely, that the browser themselves give the problem.

Do you see the problem only on one system or also on others? Are those systems, which are affected, connected with the same method (router, proxy, ...)?

[Tyler2234]

None of our other systems appear to be having any trouble, just this one and it's the only one we have running Linux. The devices are connected via router.

[Tyler2234]

I am able to ping Google, Yahoo, linuxmint.com, etc. but I still cannot browse to them on this particular machine.

[Cosmo.]

Possibly a problem with the fF-profile:

To find this out do the following:
Close FF.
Open your file-manager and make hidden files visible (press ctrl-h).
Rename the folder .mozilla to .mozilla.bck
Start FF, this will create automatically a new FF-profile.
Check.

To get back to your old profile:
Close FF.
Delete the new folder .mozilla
Rename the folder .mozila.bck back to .mozilla
Start FF. Done.

[Tyler2234]

I tried the above suggestion and still no luck. It does appear this is something network related and not a problem with the browsers as it does this in both Chromium and Firefox. It appears I'm unable to go to any https:// sites.

[Cosmo.]

The case, that 2 browsers give the same problem, is really strange. I had forgotten, that Chromium is also affected, good that you reminded me.

Try this: Create a fresh new user account and see, how it behaves there.

If this does not bring a better result, boot the same computer with the live system and check there. If this again does not give an improvement boot with the live system any other computer to check.

[Tyler2234]

Alright so I made a new user account but that didn't make any difference. I then booted the computer with the live system and that didn't make any difference. Finally I ran the live system on one of our other computers (Dell T3500) and it worked perfectly.

Is it possible that this version of Linux Mint just isn't compatible with this particular machine? Here is some more information about this box:

System: Host: LINUX1 Kernel: 4.13.0-26-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine: System: Dell product: PowerEdge 2950
Mobo: Dell model: 0J250G v: A00
Bios: Dell v: 2.7.0 date: 10/30/2010
CPU(s): 2 Quad core Intel Xeon L5410s (-HT-MCP-SMP-) cache: 12288 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 37243
clock speeds: max: 2327 MHz 1: 2327 MHz 2: 2327 MHz 3: 2327 MHz
4: 2327 MHz 5: 2327 MHz 6: 2327 MHz 7: 2327 MHz 8: 2327 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] ES1000 bus-ID: 10:0d.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1024x768@60.00hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 4.0, 128 bits)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.7 Direct Rendering: Yes
Network: Card-1: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 Gigabit Ethernet
driver: bnx2 v: 2.2.6 bus-ID: 05:00.0
IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
Card-2: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 Gigabit Ethernet
driver: bnx2 v: 2.2.6 bus-ID: 09:00.0
IF: eno2 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>

[Tyler2234]

We were able to get it figured out! There must've been settings on our Web Filter that were blocking it. We tried connecting to a switch that's on a different VLAN and everything worked normally. Not sure why the Windows machines that are on the original switch seem to work fine but I guess I wont worry about that now. Thank you for your time and effort trying to help me resolve this issue.

-Tyler

[Cosmo.]

This is really a very strange phenomena. The case, that a network card does not work is known, the case, that the hardware does not work with secure connections is new to me.

Perhaps the kernel 4.13 gives the problem? What you can do to test is one of both:
1. Download the iso image of Mint 18 or 18.1. Both come with the LTS kernel 4.4.
2. Install in the system the latest version of kernel 4.4, using the update manager -> Linux kernel. Note, that you have to load this kernel manually from the grub menu. As you are a system admin I can imagine, that you do not need a detailed how-to; in case I should be wrong, let us know and we will tell you.

P.S: I just saw your last post, as I tried to submit my answer. I leave it anyway, just for reference (heaven knows, for what it might be good).