ERR_SSL_BAD_RECORD_MAC_ALERT, Start.ca and packet loss
Out of the blue one day I start receiving an error message in multiple browsers (Firefox, Brave) for no apparent reason. When visiting a ssl encrypted page an error, ERR_SSL_BAD_RECORD_MAC_ALERT, would pop up randomly but enough to make it aggravating. This is a relatively uncommon error message in my experiences and I wanted to figure out why this was suddenly happening.
Was this only on a single pc? Was it operating system specific? Did something update itself automatically and this is a software problem? Maybe it’s a hardware issue or a bad ethernet cable?
This was occurring on multiple pcs regardless of hardware or software. Wired/wireless did not matter. You would eventually run into the problem.
A quick search for “ERR_SSL_BAD_RECORD_MAC_ALERT” will give you a bunch of hits telling you things like this:
- your operating system needs updating
- your clock is out of sync
- antivirus software is interfering
- the mtu MUST be set to 1400 on your router
- delete the killer network software from your computer (my favorite of the bunch)
I know none of these issues affect my specific problem but I am still seeing the issue. My network setup has not changed in years but I still dig deeper into my configuration looking for clues. I swapped my dns servers around thinking that this may be the issue but it still persisted. Further digging into esoteric settings that most people never touch was done ending up with the same ssl error.
Enough was enough and I left it on its own.
I didn’t bother calling my isp to investigate as these type of intermittent issues are hard to diagnose. Then one day I noticed the errors not appearing anymore.
Now this has me curious. I seem to have completely forgotten that I have SmokePing running on a server that I really should check.
This is what I see.
Yikes, this isn’t good.
I should have checked this first but for some reason I did not. Packet loss! This started around 2024-10-26 21:00 and ended around 2024-11-01 16:20. Ah yes it’s been awhile since I’ve seen this happen. Although I’ve seen packet loss before I’ve never seen the ERR_SSL_BAD_RECORD_MAC_ALERT as a result from it.
The moral of the story. Check your running SmokePing installation first as it will save you some time. Now actually getting the packet loss fixed is out of your hands and given the ownership changes over at Start.ca after the sale to Telus, this might harder than it used to be.
Fibre cannot come soon enough!