# IE 6 won't view secure pages??

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-6-wont-view-secure-pages/212999>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 13, 2003, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-6-wont-view-secure-pages/212999 "2003-11-13T08:10:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![capnfutile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@capnfutile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capnfutile)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2003, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-6-wont-view-secure-pages/212999/1 "2003-11-13T08:10:01Z")

</div>

Apologies for the computer question (we need a computer forum!)…

I recently downloaded some “critical” upgrades to my wife’s version of Internet Explorer. Ever since then, she can’t access her banking pages or, it seems, anything secure. What gives?

Antivirus up-to-date, etc.

Thanks for any help!

capn  
(mozilla user)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2003, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-6-wont-view-secure-pages/212999/2 "2003-11-13T08:51:43Z")

</div>

Do you get an error message when you try to access these pages? What OS is your wife using?

To get you started, [check out these MS Knowledgebase articles](http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?Catalog=LCID%3D1033%26CDID%3DEN-US-KB%26PRODLISTSRC%3DON&withinResults=&QuerySource=gASr_Query&Product=ie600&Queryc=view+secure+pages&Query=view+secure+pages&KeywordType=ANY&maxResults=25&Titles=false&numDays=).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2003, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-6-wont-view-secure-pages/212999/3 "2003-11-13T12:48:29Z")

</div>

It could just be that, somehow, your wife’s IE has been set to reject cookies. On most websites, you’d never know the difference, but a lot of banking and brokerage sites require the use of cookies. While some might give you an error message, others might simply fail to work (I’ve seen this happen on one of my own financial sites).

Take a look at Tools/Internet Options/Privacy/Advanced. Set it to override the automatic handling of cookies, and to allow both types of cookies (both first-party and third-party), and see if that helps.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![capnfutile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@capnfutile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capnfutile)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-6-wont-view-secure-pages/212999/4 "2003-11-14T08:22:13Z")

</div>

Horseflesh: “This page cannot be displayed” - the usual… And Win 98

Early Out - changed the cookie settings - didn’t have any effect.

Odd that all this happened immediately after downloading a “critical update” from Microsoft.

Seems to happen on every page that uses https.

Thanks guys, I’ll keep hacking at it. If I could only get her to switch to Mozilla…

Grrrrr.

capn

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Armilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e19b73/32.png) [@Armilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Armilla)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-6-wont-view-secure-pages/212999/5 "2003-11-14T11:21:37Z")

</div>

One thing that could cause this is if someone had modified the security settings for the browser:

Go into the _Tools/Internet Options_ menu and then go to the _Advanced_ tab in the dialogue that will pop up.

Scroll down to the _Security_ subtree and make sure the options “Use SSL 2.0” and “Use SSL 3.0” are ticked.