Resolved Unable to Establish Secure Connections Systemwide

[jamescharley22]

I've previously responded to a thread that's gone quiet and is now only partially related to my issue because it's evolved since then. My laptop is unable to establish secure connections systemwide with OS X El Capitan. I'm only able to access insecure links in Safari and nothing else because all other apps (at least those that I use) rely on secure connections.

The issue affects anything secure in the following:

• Safari
• Mail
• Every iCloud service
• iTunes
• App Store
• Settings
• Microsoft 360
• Autodesk

Here's what I've already done:

• Restarted MacBook Pro (multiple times)
• Restarted satellite modem
• Restarted AirPort Express
• Reset NVRAM
• Reset SMC
• Boot into Recovery Mode
  • Recovery Mode is unable to establish secure connections also
  • Safari is affected
  • Unable to re-download OS X El Capitan
• Adjusted AirPort Express settings
  • Removed wireless security
  • Increased wireless security to WPA/WPA2 Personal (now selected)
• Connect via Ethernet

• Disabled system Firewall (later reenabled after no difference)

• Forgotten and rejoined home network

• Cleared my login keychain in Keychain Access and restarted

• Joined iPhone Hotspot*

*I was able to circumvent my issues once with this method, but only for a short while to preserve my cellular data.

While connected to my iPhone's hotspot, I was able to successfully log into iCloud through Settings before having read a piece of advice recommending a different action for part of my issue.

Now here's the kicker that deserves reprimanding especially because I deliberately pressed on without having considered or taken care of these things (but I'd appreciate it if any negativity would be contained to yourselves):

• I (foolishly) installed OS X El Capitan without having recently backed up. My last Time Machine backup is from the 24th of last month.
• My home Internet is tiered and because of the beta download, I will not be able to download OS X El Capitan or Yosemite again for a clean install without exceeding my allowance and throttling my connection.

In my defense for the last bullet, El Capitan is still not able to load any part of the App Store because all the sections are secured.

Things to note:

• I am able to receive e-mail (only with iCloud Mail so far) despite Mail alerting me that all three accounts have connection failures. I am not able to do anything further than read text in my mail. Occasionally, Mail will only alert me of one or two connection failures before reverting to all three again.
• App Store is able to discover the OS X El Capitan Beta Supplemental Update for 32-bit apps after restarts, but it is not able to display anything passed the "Cannot Connect to App Store" screen.
• I have no third-party antivirus or firewall.

One thing I haven't done though is connect to a different network that uses an ISP other than ours (HughesNet).

I doubt anyone is in the exact same scenario as I am, but if someone with a similar or exact same (though unlikely) issue has found a work around or fix, please let me know. I will be poking around where I can in the hopes of fixing my issue. If I do, I will promptly update this post as reference for others.

Thank you!
- James

 

[guywhoisweird]

If it affects everything, then you probably have a certificate error in your Keychain. If you open up Keychain Access you should be able to repair it. If that doesn't solve the issue, you may need to reset the login keychain. That should reset all the certificates and redownload them

 

[jamescharley22]

If it affects everything, then you probably have a certificate error in your Keychain. If you open up Keychain Access you should be able to repair it. If that doesn't solve the issue, you may need to reset the login keychain. That should reset all the certificates and redownload them

Thank you for your response, unfortunately Keychain Access didn't find any errors to repair so I reset all the certificates and I've arrived at the same spot again after iCloud Preferences prompted me to enter the password for my iCloud account which I've already done. As far as I can tell, that's the only secure connection my laptop was able to establish. I'm still not able to connect to anything else that's secured.

 

[MrNomNoms]

Not too sure how usable this idea is - have you tried creating a boot stick for the public beta then doing a clean install?

https://support.apple.com/en-nz/HT201372

 

[jamescharley22]

Not too sure how usable this idea is - have you tried creating a boot stick for the public beta then doing a clean install?

https://support.apple.com/en-nz/HT201372

Out of five tries, I've been able to load this page two times. That means somewhere, my laptop is able to make secure connections. It's a good idea, but the App Store still won't load anything so I'm in the same spot.

 

[MrNomNoms]

Out of five tries, I've been able to load this page two times. That means somewhere, my laptop is able to make secure connections. It's a good idea, but the App Store still won't load anything so I'm in the same spot.

You're not able to revert back to the previous version of OS X (10.10) then re-download the public beta of 10.11 and load it onto a thumb drive?

 

[jamescharley22]

You're not able to revert back to the previous version of OS X (10.10) then re-download the public beta of 10.11 and load it onto a thumb drive?

Not at the moment, I don't have my backup drive on me.

 

[jamescharley22]

I connected to a different network with an ISP other than HughesNet and everything works just fine now.

 

[SG-]

sounds like your original ISP was hijacking all your connections.

 

[dsemf]

It is also possible that the HughesNet propagation delay was too long for the secure session setup process.

DS