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Cant establish secure internet connection

Hallo

Working on a macbook pro suddenly dropbox went grey and had an error can't establish secure internet connection ?? what is that all about

Thank you

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Walter

Hey there @alhembd - how are you today?

From what I understand, you must be getting the error "Can't establish secure internet connection" on your desktop application. This can be usually caused by an antivirus, firewall, security program, proxy or VPN configuration blocking the Dropbox desktop client as all connections to the Dropbox service are done using a secure connection (SSL).

Since you get a "Cannot establish a secure connection" error, I would highly recommend to check all of the following:

1. Is your system incorrect?

Your computer will compare your system date to the expiration date of our SSL certificate. If your system time is stuck in the past or so far in the future that it’s outside of Dropbox's SSL certificate expiration date, a secure connection can’t be established and to correct this, you'll need to change your system time to the current date (either on your computer, your router, or both); just note that your OS time is different than the date/time that appears in the system tray or menu bar of your computer.

2. Do you have a proxy or firewall blocking the Dropbox service?

Dropbox uses standard internet ports (80 and 443) to transfer data. Regardless, many firewalls and security software (such as antivirus programs) will proactively block unauthorized/unknown internet services. If that's the case, you should add Dropbox to your proxy or firewall settings as an exception to connect to the Dropbox service.
Known issues with ESET Endpoint Security Solutions: According to ESET's website, this product currently has a conflict with Dropbox when SSL scanning is enabled. Possible workarounds are to exclude the Dropbox certificate within the "Ask about non-visited sites" mode, as well as to exclude dropbox.exe from protocol filtering.
Known issues with Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8: This product currently has a conflict with Dropbox that prevents users from connecting after the application is updated. The current workaround is to add an exclusion in Kaspersky to allow Dropbox to connect. The second option is to upgrade the application to the Kaspersky Endpoint Security 10 version. More information on Kaspersky's site.
Known issues with HitmanPro (anti-malware): This product currently has a conflict with Dropbox that can block Dropbox sync operations. There are no known workarounds for this, however you can temporarily disable HitmanPro when you'd like to sync your Dropbox. Visit the HitmanPro website to learn more about the product, or to report false positives.

3. Are your default proxy settings incorrect?

Some external software programs will change your computer's default proxy settings when installed and may not alert you of this. Confirm that your proxy settings haven't changed and, if you don't use a proxy setting, select the option for "No proxy." You can also use the Dropbox Preferences menu to set Proxy settings:

Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar.
Select Preferences…
Click the Network tab.
Fill in your proxy settings under the section appropriately labeled Proxy Settings.

I hope this information helps and please let me know what you find!

All comments

Mark

Whats your ISP Rene?

Roger K.7

Mark Mc

Your link to Ed just goes back to the closed topic so had to post a new one.... Am trying to follow River T's advice but have not managed to get a traceroute yet....

Roger K.7

River T.
Hi all,

I'm one of the web specialists here at Dropbox. I was looking for Ed's post, but was having some trouble finding it. So I've added the information we need as well. If you’re experiencing this issue please write into Dropbox support (http://dropbox.com/support) with a description of the issue and a ‘traceroute'. This will help us to determine if there are any issues between the browser you are using and the Dropbox website:

To perform a traceroute on Mac OSX please follow these steps:

1) Open the terminal app (you can find this by typing 'terminal' into the spotlight search feature)
2) COPY and PASTE the following. Please do NOT type it in by hand:

traceroute www.dropbox.com

3) Press enter and wait (it could take 10-15 minutes)
4) When it's done, send us a screenshot of the complete output (or copy and paste the whole output if it's very long).

For Windows OS the steps to perform this action are below:
1) Open 'Command Prompt'
For Windows 7 and Windows Vista: You can do this by clicking on the 'Start icon', then select 'All Programs', then select 'Accessories', then select 'Command Prompt'
2) COPY and PASTE the following. Please do NOT type it in by hand:
tracert www.dropbox.com
3) Press enter and wait (it could take 10-15 minutes)
4) When it's done, send us a screenshot of the complete output (or copy and paste the whole output if it's very long).

We appreciate your feedback. Thanks in advance for your response and apologies for the inconvenience. You can also address your responses to me.

Best,
River

Mark

I'd suggest googling for how to do the trace route and then posting it to support - this is a user supported forum, nobody here can help I'm afraid.

Roger K.7

Traceroute submitted to River T. as requested. Fingers crossed!

Anne G.7

I have just discovered that BT Parental Controls blocks Dropbox and generates this error message if "File Sharing" is one of the restricted categories.

Dropbox may want to take this up with BT, as BT describes the block as for "Sites where the main purpose is to share or distribute illegal content or software."

solomon9669

Any chance you can help me out.... this dropbox drop is killling me:

traceroute to www.dropbox-dns.com (108.160.172.206), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1 192.168.33.1 (192.168.33.1) 9.647 ms 7.155 ms 7.345 ms

2 142.254.177.49 (142.254.177.49) 21.885 ms 25.511 ms 13.345 ms

3 agg54.sdwcaro01h.socal.rr.com (24.30.175.9) 25.995 ms 24.526 ms 24.736 ms

4 agg21.lamrcadq01r.socal.rr.com (72.129.10.192) 30.781 ms 81.276 ms 37.183 ms

5 agg28.lsancarc01r.socal.rr.com (72.129.9.0) 40.605 ms 40.209 ms 30.584 ms

6 bu-ether16.lsancarc0yw-bcr00.tbone.rr.com (66.109.6.102) 32.533 ms 23.260 ms 39.870 ms

7 bu-ether12.snjucacl67w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com (66.109.6.6) 39.821 ms 39.706 ms 39.886 ms

8 0.ae2.pr0.sjc10.tbone.rr.com (66.109.1.17) 31.581 ms

0.ae0.pr0.sjc10.tbone.rr.com (66.109.6.141) 29.222 ms 39.144 ms

9 162.125.15.22 (162.125.15.22) 37.360 ms 38.890 ms 34.341 ms

10 ae2-sjc11-bb02.net.dropbox.com (108.160.175.106) 37.316 ms 27.656 ms

ae1-sjc11-bb01.net.dropbox.com (108.160.175.102) 33.198 ms

11 ae13-sjc8-dr01.net.dropbox.com (108.160.174.242) 35.428 ms 58.735 ms 40.902 ms

12 108.160.164.23 (108.160.164.23) 39.762 ms 39.569 ms

108.160.164.19 (108.160.164.19) 34.947 ms

13 www.v.dropbox.com (108.160.172.206) 40.912 ms 39.825 ms 121.188 ms

iMac-7930:~ jessetyler$

Rich

solomon9669 wrote:
Any chance you can help me out....

With what, exactly? You haven't explained the problem you're having. You've only posted a trace route.

alhembd

I'm getting a "can't establish a secure internet connection" error message, and dropbox then does not work. Here is my trace route:

1 myhome (10.0.0.138) 5.027 ms 1.912 ms 2.102 ms

2 bzq-179-37-1.cust.bezeqint.net (212.179.37.1) 12.809 ms 12.668 ms 12.624 ms

3 10.250.3.70 (10.250.3.70) 13.000 ms 12.958 ms 13.217 ms

4 bzq-25-77-18.cust.bezeqint.net (212.25.77.18) 15.723 ms 12.957 ms 13.182 ms

5 bzq-179-124-153.cust.bezeqint.net (212.179.124.153) 70.428 ms

bzq-114-65-1.cust.bezeqint.net (192.114.65.1) 69.884 ms 70.338 ms

6 * * *

7 * 185.45.10.167 (185.45.10.167) 66.443 ms 69.205 ms

8 * 162.125.66.1 (162.125.66.1) 67.991 ms *

Walter

Hey there @alhembd - how are you today?

Since you get a "Cannot establish a secure connection" error, I would highly recommend to check all of the following:

1. Is your system incorrect?

2. Do you have a proxy or firewall blocking the Dropbox service?

Dropbox uses standard internet ports (80 and 443) to transfer data. Regardless, many firewalls and security software (such as antivirus programs) will proactively block unauthorized/unknown internet services. If that's the case, you should add Dropbox to your proxy or firewall settings as an exception to connect to the Dropbox service.
Known issues with ESET Endpoint Security Solutions: According to ESET's website, this product currently has a conflict with Dropbox when SSL scanning is enabled. Possible workarounds are to exclude the Dropbox certificate within the "Ask about non-visited sites" mode, as well as to exclude dropbox.exe from protocol filtering.
Known issues with Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8: This product currently has a conflict with Dropbox that prevents users from connecting after the application is updated. The current workaround is to add an exclusion in Kaspersky to allow Dropbox to connect. The second option is to upgrade the application to the Kaspersky Endpoint Security 10 version. More information on Kaspersky's site.
Known issues with HitmanPro (anti-malware): This product currently has a conflict with Dropbox that can block Dropbox sync operations. There are no known workarounds for this, however you can temporarily disable HitmanPro when you'd like to sync your Dropbox. Visit the HitmanPro website to learn more about the product, or to report false positives.

3. Are your default proxy settings incorrect?

Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar.
Select Preferences…
Click the Network tab.
Fill in your proxy settings under the section appropriately labeled Proxy Settings.

I hope this information helps and please let me know what you find!

BryanEss

I'm experiencing this issue. My date and time on the toolbar appear to be correct, but I can't find a "system" date and time that I read could be different from the toolbar's date and time. I did select "no proxy" in the Dropbox app. I'm on a work computer, and it's never been a problem until now. And I don't think I can ask my company's IT group. Help!

alhembd

I had this problem, and contacted support. Somehow, they fixed it over the course of two days without my knowing, until it suddenly noticed that Dropbox was working again.

I think in my case there may have been something wrong with my account settings.

Technical support is really good!

Walter

Hey there @BryanEss - sorry to hear you're having this issue.

Can you try installing our latest stable version found here ( currently 55.4.171) and let me know what you find? Thanks!

@alhembd: Glad to hear you managed to resolve this after all - thanks for the update!

BryanEss

@Walter, thank you so much. Your solution might have been the thing that worked.

Before reaching out to the forum, I had tried uninstalling and re-installing Dropbox, but the re-install failed. I took my computer home with me and used the link you provided to re-install, this time with success. Now today, at my work, Dropbox is functioning normally.

So maybe it was your link, or maybe whatever was going on with my work network straightened itself out. Either way, I'm all set.

I appreciate your help!

Walter

Glad to hear this helped Bryan - thanks for letting me know too

Should you ever come up with a Dropbox question, you know where to find us!

Have a good one @BryanEss!