506801 - Same day: Security certificates unrecognized & History display loses options

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[jpt11]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.8) Gecko/2009032609 Firefox/3.0.8
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.8) Gecko/2009032609 Firefox/3.0.8

Secure Connection Failed

      

      
      
      

      
        
        

          
Here's an example of one warning:
developer.mozilla.org uses an invalid security certificate.
The certificate will not be valid until 12/10/2007 12:02 PM.
(Error code: sec_error_expired_certificate)
Additionally received same for mail.yahoo.com , a site I have accessed for years.
----
Also today:
HISTORY sorting displays only Today (by Date) & won't SORT on By Last Visited under View

Interestingly all the History entries are there for the Keep my History setting I use.
By Date display shows only today's.
By Last Visited display shows all of them, but not sorted by most-recent at top. The entries are semi-ordered by Date, yet willy-nilly. 
Using V 3.0.8

Using History helps me during work and research which is why I would like the by-date display to return, along with the Last Visited display.
Secure Connection Failed
--
These two malfunctions are rather major to appear on same date.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. try navigating to mozilla.org site to determine if security certificate warning appears
2. try navigating to mail.yahoo.com site to determine if security certificate warning appears
3. Navigate to History sidebar pane, see if previous dates are displayed by folder
4. In History sidebar pane, see if By Last Visited view shows most-recent at top, oldest at bottom.
Actual Results:  
re: Security certificate: Attempts to nav to those two sites (and others, like caremark.com) displayed Security Certificate warnings. 
Following the process to update certificate allowed for access.

re: History, see Details listed above. Preferences were not changed; this is first occurrence of History problem.


I nearly marked this Severity as a "major" as both happened today, and earlier today when I attempted to post an entry on the Firefox Support Forum Ask a New Question page(s) THAT errored out repeatedly, not allowing a posting. Display noted a repeated error: You have mistyped the anti-bot verification code; please try again. I typed in the correct displayed anti-bot numbers each time.

There may be something connected among all three of these separate problems. Thanks.
  -- JohnNY

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

This looks like your clock at your system is wrong.
Can you please confirm that you have the right date set ?

Comment 2

[jpt11]

Matthias,
You are correct, System Date was Year 2000. Unknown why that occurred. 
Browser capability appears to have returned to normal (no Security certificate; History displays as it should. Thank you for following up. I will check motherboard and battery.
  - JohnNY

Comment 3

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

A security certificate for a https domain contains a "valid from START-DATE to END-DATE" information.
Firefox reported in your case that the certificate isn't valid at the moment but that it will valid from 12/10/2007 to XXXX.
Since 2007 is in the past it can only mean that your Firefox thinks that the current date is before 12/10/2007.

History issues can be caused by several different things but the https error is very clear why this happened.