Issues Accessing Secure Online Services on Windows 11

Hi all,

I’ve been running into some connectivity and security issues on Windows 11 that seem to affect certain secure web services. For example, when accessing banking portals or performing real-time balance checks like those used for FAB Bank account verification, the pages either fail to load or show errors related to SSL or browser security.

A few things I’ve tried so far:

- Clearing browser cache and cookies

- Updating Windows and network drivers

- Disabling VPN and firewall temporarily

Still, some sites refuse to fully load or show partial content.

Has anyone here experienced similar issues with Windows 11 blocking secure web sessions, particularly for sensitive operations like online banking or live financial verification? Any tips on configuring Windows or network settings to prevent these errors would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

@Zenon21sd,

Could we have some more details, please? What browser are you using? Which version of Windows (Home / Professional)? Who is your provider? Have you tried accessing via the hotspot on your mobile phone? Have you tried accessing using any other browsers? These are details I would need before I could even begin an investigation into your issue if you were to utilise my services.

HTH,

What third party security products do you have installed? Some security products are a little over zealous and try to filter through encryption certificates and change what your web browser gets. Microsoft's firewall in Windows does NOT do any content filtering.

FAB is a bank in the United Arab Emirates, so I suspect very few people on this website (UK centric) will have experience - if you are not in the UK, then more details may be needed.

Check that your PC time is the same as the time shown on your smart phone... within a minute should be OK; anything over a minute or two and authenticators start to get fussy.

It is quite a good idea to change the time service your PC uses to get the 'right' time from Microsoft to something rather more local. Have a look at ntp.org for suitable local (to you) time servers.

In reply to a post by Sponge35:

Have a look at ntp.org for suitable local (to you) time servers.

Normally Windows 7 and later use the microsoft source time.windows.com which should be answered in a country local facility, works in the UK. Similarly Apple hardware uses time.apple.com in the same sort of way.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Sponge35:

Have a look at ntp.org for suitable local (to you) time servers.

Normally Windows 7 and later use the microsoft source time.windows.com which should be answered in a country local facility, works in the UK. Similarly Apple hardware uses time.apple.com in the same sort of way.

Yeh... but would you trust a Microsoft server with your timekeeping?

Windows 11 itself is pathetic in respect to timekeeping.

I prefer to use NTP servers based at national standards institutes or universities and something like Meinberg to beat local Windows installations into submission. YMMV.

Yeh... but would you trust a Microsoft server with your timekeeping?

Um, yes. Haven't changed the default since MS first started doing NTP and it has been more than good enough for my needs.

Accurate time is essential to the operation of Active Directory. I would trust the Microsoft servers implicitly.

Why waste the resources of government or universities when you can get the information from Microsoft.

In reply to a post by Sponge35:

Yeh... but would you trust a Microsoft server with your timekeeping?

Windows 11 itself is pathetic in respect to timekeeping.

I think that might be your hardware, Windows has no problem, as since Win2000 the system requires accurate time.

I prefer to use NTP servers based at national standards institutes or universities and something like Meinberg to beat local Windows installations into submission. YMMV.

whilst you can use all sorts of tools, you will be surprised how good the local NTP client is in Windows, even if you have a local GPS sync'd clock to get your NTP from. The UK's National Physical Laboratory now requires payment for their NTP servers, I'm not sure underfunded universities are any better.

If you have ever run a network of Windows clients from 2000 onwards with on premises Active Directory you would know that Windows NTP works. (Win2000 may have been SNTP).

As others have said - yes - there's no issue with time.windows.com - in fact I've seen more Linux systems with bad time due to incompetent system administrators.

Hi all,

Just a quick update to close this out. The issue is now resolved.

It turned out not to be a Windows 11 SSL problem but a mix of system time sync and browser session handling that was causing certain secure banking pages to fail or partially load. After correcting the time sync properly and starting with a clean browser profile, everything began working normally again.

For reference, while testing the FAB balance side of things I followed the steps outlined in this guide https://fbbalancecheck.ae/
which helped me verify the correct access methods and confirm the issue was local rather than on the bank’s end.

Thanks to everyone who pointed me in the right direction.