Hello kstjohn, if you have Bitdefender security software try to disable ssl scanning in bitdefender' s options, see : http://www.bitdefender.com/support/what-to-do-when-security-certificates-cannot-be-verified-installed-1090.html

thank you

Thanks for the reply. No joy on that suggestion. I believe the issue lies in handshaking and TSL fall back

Interestingly enough, TOR works fine accessing the B of A website which is the problem website for this issue.

When you aren't using TOR, is there any local proxy or security software that might be a "man in the middle" in your connection to Bank of America?

Are you able to connect to BofA normally using other browsers? Note: I don't suggest actually logging in right now until you determine whether this is caused by malware, but can you get the login page?

Thanks for responding. I don't use TOR - I just had it installed from a couple of years ago and thought I'd try it. Not able to access with IE11 or Chrome either. Using Bitdefender total security . I have disabled SSL scan and shut down Bitdefender entirely - killing its services using services.msc. I've confirmed TSL settings in about:config are correct. Tried playing with internet privacy settings & whitelists. Checked host file for blocks. Checked Windows firewall settings for allowed programs - FF allowed in private network & public. Error msg says fallback ssl is too low - I'm assuming 3.0 but don't know how because it's disabled by default. Uninstalled and reinstalled FF. Not sure where else to look. key seems to be that it connects in Windows safe mode. Also tried disabling FF add ins and running FF in safe mode.

Sorry, didn't answer your question - no can't get login or even get any page to load - just clocks green messaging waiting for Bank of America until it times out with error msg re fall back issue with TSL.

Anything unusual in your Firefox or Windows connection settings? In Firefox, you can check here:

"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced > Network mini-tab > "Settings" button

The default of "Use system proxy settings" piggybacks on your Windows/IE "LAN" settings. You also could try No proxy here.

You might check your DNS servers to make sure they look legit. For a quick sanity check, you can open a cmd.exe window and type nslookup at the command prompt. Windows should display the name and IP address of the current DNS server it is using for address resolution.

You might want to supplement BitDefender with some on-demand scanners. Our support article lists tools other Firefox users have found helpful: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware. Those are free and take considerable time to run. If they seem to finish quickly and especially if they demand payment for cleaning, you may have a more serious infection. The specialized forums listed in the article would be your next stop in that case.

Thanks again for replying - the help in this community is always outstanding. I have solved the issue and it's a weird one. I went back with msconfig to put Bitdefender back in the startup sequence and somehow there was another instance of Bitdefender pointing to the same registry key - they were both identical run commands. I am at a loss as to how two got there in the startup tab. In any case I simply enabled one and everything came to life again. Weird. Thanks again and this explains why other browsers were not able to connect either.