Logging into BT mail

[charliesgrandad]

I switched the laptop on a while ago and clicked on my bt email tab on Chrome and got a warning that my connection is not private and wont let me go any further I tried a restart and got the same results .so I tried to access it on Firefox and got the same results , I am at home on my home BT broadband so I assume my wifi is secure , any help would be appreciated

 

[charliesgrandad]

 

[Lenny HB]

Can't you just go into the advanced settings and enable it for your connection.

May have happened because your browser has updated.

 

[Gromett]

BT have either screwed up their cert renewal and not included the hostname home.bt.com OR you are trying to access a hostname that is not a valid one.

Looks like it is the former as I just googled home.bt.com and it appears to be their main login server.

I would leave it for a bit and try again later. They will no doubt correct this screw up fairly quickly. Do NOT enable an exception as this will leave you open to exploits in the future.

 

[Gromett]

This is a list of trusted hostname on the active certificate.

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[charliesgrandad]

As I am not that computer savvy to go into advanced settings, for now I will follow your advice Gromett and wait to see if BT correct it, thanks for your input

 

[IRHP]

Check what WiFi you are connected to sometimes my ipad switches to the BT WiFi or BTWIFI -x open connection that anyone with a bt account can connect to . You should be on the BT hub connection

 

[Gromett]

Check what WiFi you are connected to sometimes my ipad switches to the BT WiFi or BTWIFI -x open connection that anyone with a bt account can connect to . You should be on the BT hub connection

It is definately at the BT end as I can see the same issue here. I have also run some remote diagnostics and BT are definately not issuing a cert for this hostname.

 

[Gromett]

Here is a way you can do a remote check yourself.

SSL Server Test: home.bt.com (Powered by Qualys SSL Labs)

From here you can see the cert is not trusted and right at the bottom of the screen grab you can see the reason.
MISMATCH.

Which means the certificate is not for the hostname being served/checked.

 

[charliesgrandad]

Definitely on my hub connection, I checked that first ,
Thanks again Grommet for your explanation , but still behind me

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[charliesgrandad]

My emails are accessible on my iPhone, but if I try to log into by account on phone it gives similar message as laptop, either on home Wi-Fi on on 4g

 

[Neil S]

I switched the laptop on a while ago and clicked on my bt email tab on Chrome and got a warning that my connection is not private and wont let me go any further I tried a restart and got the same results .so I tried to access it on Firefox and got the same results , I am at home on my home BT broadband so I assume my wifi is secure , any help would be appreciated

ive got the same ruddy problem and am getting the same message , can access my mail but only on my iphone

 

[charliesgrandad]

Don’t want to sound happy you have the problem as well Neil S but I am pleased it not something I am doing wrong at my end

 

[sillybug]

Happened to me as well turned everything off gave it a few mins turned on and all was fine worth a try

 

[charliesgrandad]

Like I mentioned in my OP I tried a restart but that didn’t clear it, in fact I have restarted it 3 times now

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[kevenh]

Oh dear. This shit just got real. My browser access to BT email is broken too

 

[Aireworth]

On the Error page is there not an "Advanced" tab somewhere near the bottom of the page where you can continue to the site and just ignore the cert mismatch? After all, from the info Gromett provided its certainly a BT.com certificate, it just doesn't name home.bt.com as one of its sites.

 

[Gromett]

My emails are accessible on my iPhone

can access my mail but only on my iphone

The reason for this is that the app likely logs onto a mail server (IMAP: on port 143) to read the email where as the web browser logs onto a web server (HTTPS on port 443).
BT have probably got the right certificate on IMAP and only screwed it up on HTTPS.

 

[DBK]

I gave up on BT email years ago and switched to Gmail. I still have a BT email address but it is set up to forward everything to my Gmail account, which strips out all the spam.

 

[kevenh]

And we’re back

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[Gromett]

And we’re back
View attachment 643822

I can confirm they swapped certs to one that has home.bt.com listed. Wasn't a renewal though so they actually had the cert they just installed the wrong one. Some ops guy is going to get his fingers slapped. Or the dev team who automated it.

 

[Gromett]

On the Error page is there not an "Advanced" tab somewhere near the bottom of the page where you can continue to the site and just ignore the cert mismatch? After all, from the info Gromett provided its certainly a BT.com certificate, it just doesn't name home.bt.com as one of its sites.

The problem if you accept a bad cert is that there is a possibility that another bad cert you don't want may be inserted at a later date. It is best NEVER to use that feature unless you are a real tech head and fully understand the consequences/risks.

 

[carolyn]

I gave up on BT email years ago and switched to Gmail. I still have a BT email address but it is set up to forward everything to my Gmail account, which strips out all the spam.

I’m like you but there are still one or two things I don’t like on gmail which my children think is very sad. I have still kept my old aol email address in case I need to print anything off, never fails. If they’re at home our old printer really doesn’t like it if they try to print stuff, they always email it to me to do, weird. I also “save” things in aol. I do it in gmail but but I can find it so much more easily in aol.
They tease me but my answer is always “ it’s good enough for Paul Rudd” , it was the title of a newspaper interview once.

 

[Aireworth]

The problem if you accept a bad cert is that there is a possibility that another bad cert you don't want may be inserted at a later date. It is best NEVER to use that feature unless you are a real tech head and fully understand the consequences/risks.

Is it not on a case by case basis? Accepting one bad cert doesn't mean accepting all bad certs surely.

 

[Gromett]

Is it not on a case by case basis? Accepting one bad cert doesn't mean accepting all bad certs surely.

It is not as straight forward as that. Once you get into the habit of forcing trust, it is only a matter of time before you get tricked into trusting the wrong one.

Unless you know how to read a certs details, and understand the issues and can remember to release the trust then the risks are too great. Especially with email, banking or other sensitive apps.

It is better to wait for the provider to fix the issue.

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[Coolcats]

It is definately at the BT end as I can see the same issue here. I have also run some remote diagnostics and BT are definately not issuing a cert for this hostname.

As a BT customer I can see there is nothing wrong with the BT email web site certificate it could be that the OP is not connected to the BT mail website

 

[Aireworth]

Yes I understand that, but the system doesn't automatically accept any old certificate just because you once accepted one

 

[charliesgrandad]

Everything is up and working this morning without me doing anything apart from logging in to BT as normal Thanks to all for advice and especially Gromett for saying do nothing, that stopped me interfering in things I don't understand

 

[kevenh]

As a BT customer I can see there is nothing wrong with the BT email web site certificate it could be that the OP is not connected to the BT mail website

was this when you tried last night. After around 7:30pm and before 11:30pm when BT had an issue their end?

 

[Coolcats]

was this when you tried last night. After around 7:30pm and before 11:30pm when BT had an issue their end?

It won't be the certificates they are issued and dated so unlikely it was the certificates themselves

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