Failing an SSL Test?
Boston University's Web authentication mechanism uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to encrypt the transmission of login and password information between your browser and our Web server. You can test for authentication problems by going to our SSL test page. If you have failed an aspect of the testing on that page, you may find the following suggestions helpful.
Use https:// instead of http://
If your site is set up to use a proxy for http connections but not for https connections, you could have a problem with authentication. In this case, you should be able to authenticate successfully if you begin by using an https connection to rather than an http connection. One example where this might be helpful is https://www.bu.edu/studentlink/. By asking for a secure connection manually, you eliminate the situation where a proxy in between your computer and ours could be causing the secure referral to fail.
Try a different
browser for this purpose:
If, for example, you have been trying to access the secured site
with Internet Explorer, try using Netscape (download from www.netscape.com).
Other browsers to consider include Opera
or Mozilla.
Speak to your Network Administrator
If you are behind a corporate firewall configured to block SSL
traffic on port 443, the standard port for secure http (https)
service, you will not be able to complete the authentication process
and use our secure applications. If this is your problem and your
network administrator opens access for port 443, you should then
be able to authenticate.
Related Topics
Browser troubleshooting (cookies, SSL, AOL):
www.bu.edu/pcsc/desktop/browsers/#troubleshooting
Enable Javascript:
www.bu.edu/pcsc/desktop/browsers/javascript
Set your browser to accept cookies:
www.bu.edu/pcsc/desktop/browsers/cookies