OS 10.6.8 "cannot establish secure connection"

[italophile]

Are you ready for a real challenge? Speak to me like I am a novice, because I am.

MacBookPro with 10.6.8. Access internet at home via WiFi. I have four users on this machine, two of which are minors, engaged with parental controls. My son's account suddenly was "unable to establish a secure connection" when trying to access secure sites. Only his account, not the others.

I went to the Mac Store genius bar. While waiting, I was able to get on to secure sites with THE SUSPECT USER PROFILE and surf just fine. So, it must be my router, right? Or a corrupt user name + my router combo?

So I go back home. Delete the User and Recreate anew, with different name.

Unplugged router and cable modem and booted them back up in proper sequence.

Still "cannot establish secure connection" with the new User profile. All other profiles on same machine work fine.

All other devices on network (including other Apple products) work fine.

I have seen this problem to be a common one, but no one has had the issues presented here. My kid needs to access Google Drive to do his homework, and I'd like him to use this laptop to do it. Who can help me, please?

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Oh - and I left the genius bar before being seen
because I assume that if they couldn't replicate the issue, how could they solve it?

And...time/date setting is just fine, btw.

 

[Intell]

What Internet browser is he using?

 

[italophile]

This problem is consistent with both browsers we have used -- safari and chrome

 

[yjchua95]

Are you ready for a real challenge? Speak to me like I am a novice, because I am.

MacBookPro with 10.6.8. Access internet at home via WiFi. I have four users on this machine, two of which are minors, engaged with parental controls. My son's account suddenly was "unable to establish a secure connection" when trying to access secure sites. Only his account, not the others.

I went to the Mac Store genius bar. While waiting, I was able to get on to secure sites with THE SUSPECT USER PROFILE and surf just fine. So, it must be my router, right? Or a corrupt user name + my router combo?

So I go back home. Delete the User and Recreate anew, with different name.

Unplugged router and cable modem and booted them back up in proper sequence.

Still "cannot establish secure connection" with the new User profile. All other profiles on same machine work fine.

All other devices on network (including other Apple products) work fine.

I have seen this problem to be a common one, but no one has had the issues presented here. My kid needs to access Google Drive to do his homework, and I'd like him to use this laptop to do it. Who can help me, please?

----------

Oh - and I left the genius bar before being seen
because I assume that if they couldn't replicate the issue, how could they solve it?

And...time/date setting is just fine, btw.

Well first why are you even on 10.6.8? It no longer receives security updates from Apple.

In fact, I'd question the security of any OS X prior to Mavericks, because Apple only maintains Mavericks and Yosemite now.

 

[Intell]

Well first why are you even on 10.6.8? It no longer receives security updates from Apple.

In fact, I'd question the security of any OS X prior to Mavericks, because Apple only maintains Mavericks and Yosemite now.

italophile could have a CoreDuo machine that cannot run Lion or anything newer. Apple is still supporting 10.8.5 and will continue to do so for another year. Even 10.7.5 is still up to date, but it won't be once Apple releases the next security update.

 

[italophile]

Yes, it's an old machine. We acquired it in 2008/9

Despite old OS, the other User Profiles access secure sites fine, so I assume this is not the issue.

 

[Dave H]

For whatever it's worth, a quick Google search found this:
https://support.apple.com/kb/TA20405

Also, the current version of Firefox runs on 10.6.8.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/33.0.2/system-requirements/