You got the time my man? ‘Cause my certificate sure don’t…….

A friend was getting a certificate error on his server and  the site he was trying to authenticate  has a known valid certificate..

The fix may be easier  than you think as sometimes we look past the easy fixes looking for disaster…

This issue occurs many times if for whatever reason, your server clock has reset itself.

Take a moment to look in the right hand corner of your monitor at your time and open that up. Your Internet Explorer browser will look at the time and date and match it to the certificate issued by the site or your partner. Look at the “properties” of the site to ensure the certificate is indeed valid. Assuming your partner’s site certificate or server certificate is valid, your partner SHOULD renew that certificate prior to expiration and you as the end user will not have to make any changes.

Reasons for this happening could include: Your motherboard battery being dead and resetting the CMOS or BIOS clock, the time zone being changed on your laptop incorrectly, or user-error.

Typically the battery on the motherboard can be purchased at any retail outlet that sells an assortment of watch batteries for under $5.00. Because this involves opening your computer case, great caution must be taken to make su6re all power has been removed and that the battery is carefully replaced due to the clips on most boards retaining the battery being very fragile. This type of repair is typically covered under warranty.  If you are not completely sure of what you are doing I strongly recommend you find an authorized repair center. For help in modifying your date and time, go to this Microsoft site: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Change-the-display-of-dates-times-currency-and-measurements  HOWEVER…….. IF YOU ARE USING SERVER….. on a domain…… You REALLY should be using an authoritative time server to prevent these issues  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816042  

I recommend configuring it to look up time from a nationally based time server. You may find sites Microsoft lists by going here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;262680

The time format, etc. may also be configured in the Regional Group Policy Object and this information found here : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754496.aspx