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VHermann

6 Posts

8666

September 3rd, 2005 00:00

128 encryption disappeared in IE6.0 SP1

Running W2K Sp4, IE6.0 Sp1 on Dimension 4300 Pentium
 
Just recently I've not been able to go to or logon to secure pages such as the ones for bill paying, dell support logon etc.  I get an error page saying "Page Cannot be Displayed".  One of the suggestions that is listed on this page is to check the encryption strength, which has always been 128.  When I checked "About" in IE, it now says Cipher strength 0-bit, with no update link next to it. 
 
So after searching MS support, I found a page to download the High Encryption pack, Encpack_Win2000_EN, for install.  It said in the notes to accept the agreement when that window popped up upon installing.  1) that agreement window never popped up 2) encpack seems to install, it asks me to restart my computer but Cipher strength is still at 0-bit after the computer is restarted.
 
I run McAfee, Ad-Aware and have Zone Pro firewall, all of which never interfered with accessing these pages in the past. (These are pages I access several times a month).  I have tried to access these pages with none of the security programmes running to no avail.
 
I tried to submit the question to MS, but they say since I have OEM software, I must use Dell.
 
I tried to uninstall IE, however in the Add/Remove Software in Control Panel, uninstalling is not an option.  I tried to "repair" it by re-installing IE again.  This did not work either.
 
Thank you very much for any help.

JRosenfeld

2 Intern

 • 

4.4K Posts

September 5th, 2005 19:00

VHermann

6 Posts

September 5th, 2005 20:00

Thanks for the information. I must have read 10-12 MS bulletins that all seemed to apply in part or perhaps only maybe or the bulletin told you to go and read another bulletin. I followed steps in some of them that appeared to possibly apply to W2K, though not specifically mentioned, and they did not work. Most of the bulletins said that there were hot fixes available but don't load them unless it was imperative but rather wait for cummulative patches. So my next question was how to do really know what fixes, patches, updates have been installed especially since the MS Updater appears not to be working at optimum performance levels. So some kind person told me about MBSA 2.0 (http://www.jsifaq.com/Tipndx/Tip9500.htm tip number 9526.) I must say I installed this new MS product with some trepidation but it found two items that had not been offered for install by MS Updater. I installed those two items and my 128-bit cipher is back! Not sure why or how, but hey why argue with success.

One piece of good news...This four day exercise to fix this cipher problem also led me to use Firefox browser, since my IE6.0 had no encryption on it. I really like Firefox! So I now use IE as a backup or when MS makes me.

I hope that this helps someone else.

JRosenfeld

2 Intern

 • 

4.4K Posts

September 5th, 2005 21:00

Glad you solved the encryption problem. I must confess that when I posted those links I had not noticed your (clear) statement that you were using W2K and not XP. Apologies for that.

MBSA is indeed a useful tool.

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