Programming and by extension, development has become quite easy with the introduction of next-generation frameworks and AI tools to assist developers. However, a large part of the internet still works on legacy sites built using PHP and if they run into errors, the fix isn’t always straightforward.
In this article, we’re talking about the SSL_Connect_Error issue, its causes and what you can do to fix the problem.
What causes the SSL_Connect_Error issue?
There are actually a number of different reasons why you’d run into this error. Some of the most common factors are as follows:
- Invalid SSL version
- SSL certificate has expired
- Bugs or issues in SSL implementation
- Buggy side code
Also read: How to fix SSL_error_bad_cert_domain?
How to fix the SSL_Connect_Error issue?
Here are five fixes you can try out.
Restart your router
Power cycling your network equipment is the fix to more issues than you think. More often than not, connectivity issues can be caused by an underlying bug in your router and can be fixed by rebooting.
Get a reliable SSL certificate
If you’re getting your certificates from a not-so-popular issuing authority, chances are your SSL certificate is at fault. We recommend using LetsEncrypt or ZeroSSL to get SSL certificates that don’t cause such problems.
Remove any third-party firewalls
If you’re using any other firewalls apart from the default Windows one, chances are it’s sending an RST to your browser to terminate the attempted connection between the browser and the web server.
Try disabling or removing the firewall to check if the browser works without one. If it does, either remove the firewall or add an exception for Firefox in the firewall settings.
Update your TLS version
If your web server is using an older version of TLS, you need to upgrade your TLS/SSL library to support the latest standard. While your hosting provider should automatically implement this, in case, you see the error, updating the library manually shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.
You will need to contact your hosting provider for the exact steps.
Use HTTPS
If you’re using HTTP to connect to the server, try switching it to HTTPS. These days most SSL certificates don’t allow HTTP as it’s less secure and more prone to attacks.
Also read: How to fix error:1408f10b:ssl routines:ssl3_get_record:wrong version number?
