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   From: VanguardLH    
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   microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support   
   Subject: Re: Unable to connect to GitHub in Windows XP Pro SP3's IE8 web   
   browser?   
   Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2016 03:58:17 -0600   
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   Ant wrote on 2016/01/06:   
      
   Note: The following newsgroups not included in my reply because they are   
   not carried by my Usenet provider (individual.net):   
      
     microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer   
     microsoft.public.windowsxp   
      
   > How come I cannot connect to https://github.com/ in 2 different    
   > machines' Windows XP Pro SP3's IE8 web browsers? They show:   
   >    
   > "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage   
   >    
   > Is anyone seeing this problem too? I don't know what to change in the    
   > IE's options.    
      
   https://help.github.com/articles/supported-browsers/   
      
   My recollection is that the base version of Internet Explorer was   
   version 6 included in a fresh install of Windows XP.  WinXP came with   
   IE8 and you could not uninstall it (but could hide it) as Windows   
   usually does not let you remove the baseline version (because HTAs -   
   HTML Applications - need the IE libraries).  IE9 was the highest version   
   you could install in Windows XP.  So you should update from IE8 to IE9.   
      
   Github's statement says that you cannot connect even if you updated from   
   IE to IE9.  That is because the old SSL and use of weak certificates   
   made IE (and other web browsers) vulnerable to malicious use.  Many   
   sites requires TLS, a later version of SSL, and removal of the weak   
   certs when you securely connect (via HTTPS) to their site.   
      
   Github won't let you insecurely connect to them.  They demand HTTPS   
   connects.  If you try an insecure connect (http://github.com), their   
   server will redirect to a secure connect (https://github.com).   
      
   So stop using Internet Explorer on Windows XP.  Switch to a better web   
   browser that supports TLS and other security methods when connecting to   
   web sites; e.g., Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome (or their variants).   
   My aunt ran into the rejection problem with her Windows XP and using   
   Internet Explorer 9 many months ago.  There was a stink back then about   
   using weak "secure" connects that could be exploited.  She now uses   
   Firefox and has no problems connecting to any of the previously   
   problematic HTTPS web sites, plus it renders pages a lot faster with   
   less artifacts (bad painting) in the page's content.   
      
   Nothing you can change on Windows XP.  See below in what you can do in   
   IE.   or in the options for Internet Explorer.  Those are too old to   
   provide secure (HTTPS) connections for many sites.  Some sites still   
   support vulnerable SSL 2.0 connections.  SSL 3.0 is basically what is   
   TLS 1.0 but sites are often looking for a specific encryption protocol.   
   Plus sites may require TLS 2.0 at a minimum, so using TLS 1.0 (available   
   back in IE8) and SSL 3.0 won't help.  If you go into IE's advanced   
   options under the security section, is there a TLS option you can enable   
   to use that for HTTPS connects?   
      
   If you disable SSL 3.0, you will find some old sites (old in that they   
   still support SSL) that won't work.  You should disable SSL 1.0 and SSL   
   2.0 and enable SSL 3.0 and leave disabled TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and TLS 1.2.   
   Then connect to every domain (not every site within domain) that uses   
   HTTPS (or redirects from HTTP to HTTPS) in your Favorites list to see if   
   any will fail to connect via SSL.  Then disable SSL 3.0 and retest.  You   
   might find some sites won't connect using SSL 3.0 as they have moved to   
   TLS.  So then disable SSL 3.0 and enable all the TLS options.  Retest.   
   You might find some sites that are still using SSL 3.0 so you'll have to   
   decide if you want to continue visiting those sites.   
      
   The TLS options are available in IE9, not IE8.  So it is likely that you   
   will need to upgrade from IE8 to IE9 to get HTTPS connects to sites that   
   have upped their security (by getting new site certs).  Although you   
   might upgrade to IE9 and ensure the TLS options are enabled (and SSL   
   2.0, at least, is disabled although SSL 3.0 should be disabled, too), it   
   is possible a site will look at the User-Agent header sent by your web   
   browser.  A site can refuse a connection from a web browser of a lesser   
   version than they mandate as the minimum.  In that case, you could use   
   the UApick add-on for IE to have it lie in doling out a UA string for a   
   different and new web browser.  However, that will also mean the site   
   may alter its HTML code to make it compatible with that reported web   
   browser but results in failures in rendering in your real web browser.   
   When you lie about what web browser you use, the site will assume it can   
   use the HTML applicable to that reported web browser (by brand and   
   version).   
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