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How to Fix the “Not Secure” Address Bar Error

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You finally installed your SSL certificate, but your browser is still stubbornly shouting “Not Secure” in the address bar.

You try pulling the site up on your phone or a different browser, and it looks perfectly fine. Beautiful green padlock, completely secure. So why is your main browser gaslighting you?

If this sounds familiar, the issue usually boils down to a single moment: you accessed the site before the SSL was set up and bypassed the browser warning.

When you click “Advanced” and proceed to an insecure site, your browser creates a persistent security exception. Even after you install a pristine SSL certificate, the browser often refuses to re-verify the site, clinging instead to its cached memory of that initial insecure connection. If you are stuck in this loop, a standard page refresh won’t fix it. Here is how to break the cycle by clearing your browser’s HSTS and SSL cache.

 

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Allow Avanan to Email from Client Domain

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Are your client email Restore requests are being sent to your spam folder? Chances are their domain DNS SPF record needs to be updated.

Because Avanan inserts itself into the outbound mail flow to handle these requests, those Restore request emails originate from Avanan’s cloud IPs instead of your client’s primary mail server (like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace).

If the client’s DNS doesn’t explicitly authorize Avanan, receiving servers will flag it as an SPF failure, thus sending the Restore request email to spam.

 

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Microsoft Authenticator Limitations, Use Proton Authenticator

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Two-factor authentication (2FA) is essential in helping to protect online accounts. But as more users adopt 2FA across dozens (sometimes hundreds) of accounts, the tools we rely on to manage these codes must scale with us.

Unfortunately, Microsoft Authenticator can’t fill the need for many power users. You may recall my other article on the limitations of Google Authenticator some time ago. I really thought I had something with Microsoft Authenticator, but I was wrong.

Don’t worry, the open source, privacy-first Proton Authenticator application has come to the rescue!

 

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Setup WordPress SSL Certificate

Secure Your Site with HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)

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In today’s digital landscape, securing your website is more than just a best practice—it’s essential. One powerful tool in your web security arsenal is HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS).

This policy ensures that browsers only connect to your site using secure HTTPS connections, protecting users from threats like protocol downgrade attacks and cookie hijacking.

This tutorial walks you through implementing HSTS on your website using the .htaccess file and submitting your domain to the HSTS preload list for maximum protection.

 

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Setup WordPress SSL Certificate

Increase Website Security with X-Security Headers

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Here are three techniques to increase your website’s security posture.

This tutorial explains how to add X-Security Headers to protect against cross-site scripting (XSS), page-framing, and content-sniffing by adding extra security headers to your sites’ resources.

 

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Fix Brave Browser Becoming Unresponsive

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Recently I adjusted my optimized Brave browser configuration to enable graphics acceleration when available. This resulted in random unresponsive episodes when using Brave.

This article serves as a reminder to disable the Use graphics acceleration when available option within my Brave browser, Firefox and Microsoft Edge for that matter.

Conclusion

As always, I welcome your thoughts, questions or suggestions on my article on preventing Brave browser from becoming unresponsive.

You may support my work by sending me a tip using your Brave browser or by sending me a one time donation using your credit card.

Let me know if you found any errors within my article or if I may further assist you by answering any additional questions you may have.

 

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Delete All Saved Passwords in Proton Pass

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Experimenting with the Proton Pass password manager service revealed that it has promise.

However, my initial attempt at importing passwords failed about half way. Then restarting the import resulted in duplication of most passwords since Proton Pass apparently has no way to detect duplicates.

Wanting to start over, I discovered that had to manually select each password even using their “Multiple select” option. Luckily I discovered a solution to remove all the passwords at once with a few clicks and one confirmation box.

This article covers how you can delete all your saved passwords within Proton Pass.

 

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Optimized Brave Browser Installation

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This article covers my preferred method of configuration and optimization for the Brave Browser, a privacy focused internet browser application, on Windows.

 

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Help My Email Account was Hacked

What do I do if my Email Account was Hacked?

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If your email account has been hacked, you must act quickly to regain control and prevent further issues.

Here are some steps you can take:

 

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