NEWB Questioin
 

for some unknown friggin reason, my laptop can no longer log onto secure websites (online banking, sprint account, shit, even my fantasy football wont open). i have tried everything in my meager computer knowledge to fix it and nothing has worked.

so, if anyone has any suggestions that may help, i would appreciate it. otherwise, i have decided that maybe reloading my OS might fix the problem. but i have no idea how to unload and reload my OS. so if someone could tell me how to do that, i would be forever grateful. i have a dell inspiron running XP on comcast cable newtork.

There are too many problems that could be causing your website issues. If you really want to install a new OS on it, you'll need a full version of Windows XP on CD. Do you have one?

-Lasereth

run spybot... there are loads of factors here, but eleminating spyware from your machine is a much easier first step than reinstalling your OS!
http://www.safer-networking.org/

Another quick check can be to load another browser (Mozilla Firebird is a quick download and free) and see if you can get in that way. If so, the problem is contained to IE, and perhaps you can get rid of all the preferences associated with it to 'start fresh' without reloading the whole OS.

dell sent me the roboot disk or whatever with my laptop and i am guessing that i can reload the OS with this disk. so how do i do it? also, i am currently checking out spyware and other browser options. will report back. thanks!

Check that you have 128bit encryption enabled.

the new broswer did the trick. how do i de-bug IE though?

oh man, the unintentional irony of that question is killing me.

you might as well ask:

how do I make the Pope Jewish?
how do I make water run uphill?
how do I make my dick bigger?
how do I reverse gravity?
how do I win the Super Lotto?
how do I travel through time?
how do I make supermodels fall in love with me?

etc. etc.

sorry man, not bagging on you, just amusing myself.

Pull down "Tools" in IE and go to "Internet Options".

Click the Advanced tab and scroll down to the section on "security".

I'm using IE 6, and here's what I have unchecked (everything not mentioned is therefore checked):
Check for server certificate revocation
Check for signatures on downloaded programs
Do not save encrypted pages to disk
Use TLS 1.0
Warn if changing between secure and not secure mode.

My guess is that one of the security options got changed [no idea how, though], and that's stopping SSL from working properly in IE.