FreeBSD Forum access problem (was Re: Endless Data Loss)

[Arthur Chance]

On 28/07/2015 14:30, Ian Smith wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Jul 2015 18:09:13 +0200, Polytropon wrote:
>   > On Sun, 26 Jul 2015 23:58:25 +1000 (EST), Ian Smith wrote:
>
>   > > That's not the problem.  The problem with the forums site is that it no
>   > > longer allows connections using SSLv3 or TLS 1.0 .. it requires at least
>   > > TLS 1.1 now, and might later accept only TLS 1.2, even just for reading.
>   >
>   > Thank you for clarification! I've set the security options
>   > to only (!) allow TLS 1.1 and 1.2, _no_ SSL v3 or TLS 1.0,
>   > and now I can connect to the forum again. I'll check now if
>   > the other few websites I visit will be "impacted" by that
>   > configuration change.
>
> I don't think you needed to disable older protocols - unless you want to
> not permit yourself to connect to older sites that only present those
> protocols - in order for the highest/latest options to be selected where
> they are enabled and perhaps demanded as in the case of the forums.
>
> But you should test that assumption, which is all it is.
>
> I've since found that even my not-SO-ancient firefox from 9.1 to
> 9.2-stable times would not connect to forums.freebsd.org either.
>
> % pkg info firefox
> firefox-23.0,1
> Name           : firefox
> Version        : 23.0,1
> Installed on   : Sun Jul 20 02:37:45 EST 2014
> Origin         : www/firefox
> Architecture   : freebsd:9:x86:64
>
> Had to go hunting in the bowels of about:config to find what SSL
> protocols were set, and it just showed '1' (as an integer), so after
> some more hunting, on a hunch I tried '2' there.  That worked! but I
> have not the slightest idea why it does, or what '2' signifies :)

I'm on FF 39 so this may not apply to you, but with that caveat my 
about:config shows

security.tls.version.min = 1
security.tls.version.max = 3

and an add-on (Configuration Mania) which gives nicer access to many 
config settings interprets that as TLS 1.0 as minimum, TLS 1.2 as 
maximum. I have no problem getting to the forums.

-- 
Those who do not learn from computing history are doomed to
GOTO 1