If you are unable to connect to webmail at https://mail.b.hostedemail.com due to a browser security error this may be caused by HSTS. The security certificate for webmail was reissued by the Certificate Authority around the beginning of August 2024. Visitors who had accessed webmail previously may be getting a certificate error as it no longer matches the signature of the certificate their browser had previously stored for HSTS.

What is HSTS?

HSTS stands for HTTP Strict Transport Security. It can boost security on the internet by providing an additional degree of protection by preventing eavesdropping, cookie hijacking, protocol downgrade interference, and Man-In-The-Middle attacks. When you visit a website with HSTS enabled your browser remembers the signature of the security certificate for that site so that on repeat visits it checks the signature of any certificate claiming to be that site with the last time you visited that site, and when they match your browser knows that the connection continues to be safe and secure.

However, HSTS has a big drawback as its implementation can cause browser issues with a particular website; such as when their security certificate is replaced or renewed, or from a different Certificate Authority. You may get HSTS errors that say “Your Connection Is Not Private”, “Security Risk Ahead”, “SSL/TLS Handshake Failed”. If you can access the page in another browser or on another device and the error does not appear then this indicates that your brower’s HSTS setting for the site is triggering the problem.

You can clear your HSTS settings for your webmail in your browser by following the steps below.

How to Clear HSTS Settings In Google Chrome

1. Open Google Chrome
2. In the address bar type chrome://net-internals/#hsts
3. In the DELETE DOMAIN SECURITY POLICIES enter the domain mail.b.hostedemail.com

    

4. Press the [DELETE] button
5. To verify that the HSTS policy was deleted enter the domain mail.b.hostedemail.com into the QUERY HSTS/PKP DOMAIN field and press the [QUERY] button. If it says “Not found” then you should be able to successfully browse to your webmail again.

How To Clear HSTS Settings In Mozilla Firefox

1. Open Mozilla Firefox
2. Click on the burger menu [=] icon in the upper-right corner and select HISTORY from the drop-down menu (you can also get there by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+H on Windows or CMD+SHIFT+H on Mac)

   

3. Find the history item that says WEBMAIL::WELCOME TO WEBMAIL and right-click on it

   

4. In the drop-down menu select FORGET ABOUT THIS SITE
5. You should now be able to successfully browse to your webmail again.

Another workaround would be to try the alternate webmail location of https://mail.mailconfig.net.