Chrome - Establishing Secure Connection

This problem has only cropped up in the last week or so and I don't know the last time Chrome updated to Version 84.0.4147.89. What I see on most https websites is a message at the bottom left of the Chrome window saying "Establishing Secure Connection." This can go on for up to 45 seconds before it loads the website or tells me it can't connect. I've gone through most of the suggestions in THIS article with no change. This problem isn't just with Chrome, I see it in Firefox and Opera also. The only browser that doesn't seem to be effected (at least not as often) is Brave, a new Chromium based offshoot of Chrome. To make matters more confusing, it doesn't happen with any of my wireless devices, only over my wired connections.

I'm no networking expert by any means, but it seems to me that if it happens with more than one browser, it's probably not the browser. I haven't fiddled with any settings in my router, so I doubt I caused the issue. Any further ideas would be appreciated.

Windows 7 Ultimate
U-Verse 1 gig
Router is an AT&T supplied Pace 5268AC

By any chance do you have a VPN?

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Originally Posted by Bryan

By any chance do you have a VPN?

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Nope and none of the browsers use a vpn extension, though Brave has a quasi one built in I believe.

Maybe it is your DNS service? Try changing your gateway router to a different one, and see if that makes a difference. If not, at least then you can rule that out.

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Originally Posted by zombie67

Maybe it is your DNS service? Try changing your gateway router to a different one, and see if that makes a difference. If not, at least then you can rule that out.

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I'll check, but I believe AT&T locks it to their DNS.

Do you have a machine you can change from wired to wireless and see if that actually makes a difference?

EDIT: or vice versa

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bryan

Do you have a machine you can change from wired to wireless and see if that actually makes a difference?

EDIT: or vice versa

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Yes, I can try that.

Confirmed AT&T does not allow changing DNS...they probably have something going with the NSA.:rolleyes:

My wife's laptop experiences none of the above over wireless. Hardwired from the same location (4-port unmanaged switch) as my desktop and it still doesn't experience any issues. Must be a bad setting somewhere on my desktop?

Call up a command prompt on a failing machine and do a trace route to a site you can't connect to. ie

tracert google.com

It should show you all of the hops along the way. If all you get is 192.168.0.1 or 10.0.0.1 (your gateway address) then it isn't getting out of the router.

If it doesn't get out of the router or gets hung up at your ISP then try a nslookup to see if it is reaching the DNS server;

nsloookup google.com

That should return the Ipv6 and Ipv4 addresses if it is making it to the DNS server.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Al>tracert stats.free-dc.org

Tracing route to stats.free-dc.org [68.89.69.138]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms homeportal [192.168.1.254]
2 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 104-185-76-1.lightspeed.rlghnc.sbcglobal.net [104.185.76.1]
3 4 ms 3 ms 3 ms 99.173.77.15
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

Try it on Steph's machine and see if her's shows the request without timing out. I'm wondering if you are getting stopped at your ISP.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.959]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

tracert stat.free-dc.org

Tracing route to stat.free-dc.org [23.217.138.110]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms homeportal [192.168.1.254]
2 3 ms 2 ms 2 ms 104-185-76-1.lightspeed.rlghnc.sbcglobal.net [104.185.76.1]
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 20 ms 12 ms 12 ms 12.123.152.74
5 13 ms 16 ms 16 ms wswdc21crs.ip.att.net [12.122.2.190]
6 12 ms 14 ms 14 ms wswdc401igs.ip.att.net [12.122.113.37]
7 13 ms 13 ms 19 ms 192.205.37.54
8 74 ms 74 ms 74 ms ae-67.r05.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.153]
9 18 ms 20 ms 18 ms ae-10.r24.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.23]
10 70 ms 67 ms 68 ms ae-2.r24.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.6.237]
11 70 ms 70 ms 87 ms ae-0.a02.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.3]
12 69 ms 75 ms 73 ms ae-7.akamai.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [130.94.195.14]
13 68 ms 67 ms 68 ms a23-217-138-110.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com [23.217.138.110]

Trace complete.


....and then coming back here her laptop started getting the same secure connection message and lag, though not as bad.

One of the reasons I have a Edge router F/W after my cable modem, and that's my gateway and where I specify google dns instead - 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (I'm also on At&T)

stat.free-dc.org should be stats.free-dc.org

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Al

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.959]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

tracert stat.free-dc.org

Tracing route to stat.free-dc.org [23.217.138.110]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms homeportal [192.168.1.254]
2 3 ms 2 ms 2 ms 104-185-76-1.lightspeed.rlghnc.sbcglobal.net [104.185.76.1]
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 20 ms 12 ms 12 ms 12.123.152.74
5 13 ms 16 ms 16 ms wswdc21crs.ip.att.net [12.122.2.190]
6 12 ms 14 ms 14 ms wswdc401igs.ip.att.net [12.122.113.37]
7 13 ms 13 ms 19 ms 192.205.37.54
8 74 ms 74 ms 74 ms ae-67.r05.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.153]
9 18 ms 20 ms 18 ms ae-10.r24.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.23]
10 70 ms 67 ms 68 ms ae-2.r24.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.6.237]
11 70 ms 70 ms 87 ms ae-0.a02.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.3]
12 69 ms 75 ms 73 ms ae-7.akamai.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [130.94.195.14]
13 68 ms 67 ms 68 ms a23-217-138-110.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com [23.217.138.110]

Trace complete.


....and then coming back here her laptop started getting the same secure connection message and lag, though not as bad.

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Good catch Phil, I'll try again tomorrow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bok

One of the reasons I have a Edge router F/W after my cable modem, and that's my gateway and where I specify google dns instead - 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (I'm also on At&T)

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Can't you define the DNS on a machine-level too? You could try that temporarily, to see if it makes a difference.

off topic:
This thread got me thinking; why not traceroute to my dns sites. One of my Comcast DNS addresses was a total of 6 hops and then I'm off to the world. My other Comcast DNS went from Little Rock to Denver, which was 14 hops. Both google DNS addresses gave me 10 hops with 1 x "* * *" along the way.

I've decided to use the 6 hop address.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zombie67

Can't you define the DNS on a machine-level too? You could try that temporarily, to see if it makes a difference.

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Seems to have helped. Not seeing the connection issue. I only changed the IPv4. Should I do the IPv6 also?

Using trigggl's idea I did a traceroute on AT&T and Google DNS. AT&T was one hop shorter, but the connection lag seems to have gone away (so far) using Google's DNS. I'll keep watching it.

Issue cam back with a vengeance. Doing this immediately helped and I haven't seen the connection issue for 24 hours.

Solution 3: Re-enable Cryptographic Services and DNS Client in Services
Whether the file sharing feature runs properly depending on certain services. In this case, these functions are called Function Discovery Provider Host and Function Discovery Resource Publication. Follow the steps below to boot and run these services.

Step 1: Press Win and R keys to open the Run dialog. Then type services.msc, and then hit Enter.

Step 2: Scroll down the services list to find Cryptographic Services and DNS Client, and then right click them one by one to choose Properties from the pop-up menu.

Step 3: If the service has started, click Stop to end the service. Then restart the service.

Intuitively obvious :D

I use Mozilla Firefox, dont have problems like Chrome does...

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Originally Posted by dcushing

I use Mozilla Firefox, dont have problems like Chrome does...

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Tried that Doug. FF had the same issue, as did IE, Brave, etc. I think I was actually chasing a problem here that was really a problem with AT&T. Anyway, it's sorted out now. Thanks.

It actually wasn't sorted out, as the issue came back again. I then did something I was hesitant to do, I upgraded to Windows 10. It went off without a hitch aside from I had no internet access after the upgrade, which then turned into intermittent access. Reinstalling the network driver took care of those issues and I haven't seen the OP problem since.