Feb 12
SharePoint: Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage
Tim Allison
After graduating in 1989 I worked as a consultant, then off to Herman Miller as a Network Admin, and finally landed at C/D/H. So ultimately 21 years! Wow!
I enjoy making life better: at home, at play and at work. Technology happens to be one of those areas. In the same manner helping those around me become better through sharing knowledge only results in a better place for us all.
Family is important to me. I am finding my granddaughter (yes, I have three grandchildren) is always on the top of my “love to spend time with” list.
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When a SharePoint intranet tells you that “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” and you’ve tried everything else, look one last place.
I just ran into an issue at a client where their SharePoint intranet would respond with a cryptic response:
So I tested the various connections required to make the server work:
- SharePoint server has services running: Yep
- SQL server functioning: Yep
- Ran Central Administration to verify the SharePoint to SQL communications: Yep, worked
And the list went on. Getting frustrated, I gave my brain a short rest by getting a cup of coffee. This is always a great way to let the little grey cells do their work under less stress. Of course it worked and the light-bulb went off.
The last place I checked was the IIS security for the main web application. Apparently the web certificate had expired! Replacing it with the new valid certificate worked immediately.
Not that web certificates expiring is anything new, but it was strange that the browser did not report this as the error and not the generic “cannot display” message.
Hope this helps someone out there.