Is This Site Secure?

Yes.

At 10:40am New York time on 16 February 2021 kermitproject.org was converted from HTTP to HTTPS using the free, automated, and open Let's Encrypt certificate authority. All references to http://kermitproject.org or http://www.kermitproject.org, and to all pages, files, and images at this site, now redirect automatically to their https: equivalents. In other words, all documents at all sites that contain http: links to kermitproject.org will continue to work and need not be changed and your connection to them will be encrypted. Of course URLs that link directly to https://kermitproject.org work too as of 16 February.

Temporary transition issues

The new secure kermitproject site has a new IP address. For that reason, during the first day or two, attempts to access kermitproject.org might fail with an error such as:

  Secure Connection Failed

  An error occurred during a connection to kermitproject.org. SSL received a
  record that exceeded the maximum permissible length.

  Error code: SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG

      The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the
      authenticity of the received data could not be verified.  Please
      contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

for some hours or even a whole day, because the client computer has the old IP address cached. The client-side cache can be cleared on Windows by giving the following command in a CMD or Powershell window:

  ipconfig /flushdns

On Ubuntu Linux, the command is:

  sudo systemd-resolve --flush-caches

For other platforms, see the following page for instructions:

  https://phoenixnap.com/kb/how-to-flush-dns-cache

Or look in Google for "clear|flush dns cache" along with your operating system name, e.g.

  clear|flush dns cache macos

After clearing the cache, you should also restart your browser, which is likely to have its own stale cache. In extreme cases you might also have to restart your computer.

If all these measures fail, it is also possible that the new IP address has not propogated through the worldwide network of domain name servers to the one you are using (up to and including your own desktop router). The update is usually rapid but in some cases can take 24-48 hours.

The original version of this page explained that all the pages at kermitproject were already secure by definition because none of them collected information from you or put cookies on your computer; in other words, this is a read-only site; the explanation is still available here.

Thanks to the support staff at Panix.com for installing Let's Encrypt on its servers and for their help in the conversion, and to Brolin Empey for suggesting I look into Let's Encrypt.

—Frank da Cruz, 16 February 2021.