Mac Forum / Applications / Internet Explorer / August 2004

Hi.

For the past month or so, I have been unable to access Paypal, eBay's
online payment system.  When I enter it, all that shows are the
headers and (sometimes) a warning box appears saying "Security
failure. Data encryption error."

In case it was a problem with my browser or OS, I updated both to the
newest my elderly Powerbook would take - OS 9.2 and IE 5.1.7 - to no
avail.

Paypal suggested I configured my browser to accept all cookies without
asking (it is), check that it has 128-bit encryption (it does) and
clear out all the cookies in case any were corrupted (I did, more than
once).  Finally they said:

"If you are encountering difficulties using Internet Explorer on Mac
OS
9.x and below, we ask that you consider using a different browser at
this time. The error you are encountering is a well-known and
documented issue with Internet Explorer's inability to recognize valid
security certificates.  Approximately one year ago, Microsoft
announced the end of development for future versions of the Internet
Explorer browser for the Mac. With this in mind, you will want to
begin looking at various alternatives available for your Internet
browsing needs."

Are they right, or is there something else I can try?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.