Since about 5am (Eastern time) some users are experiencing intermittent connection issues with Tootsbook. We’re looking into it, but it seems there may be a problem with the SSL Certificate used to ensure browsing privacy.

Visiting Tootsbook at http://tootsbook.com/ (instead of https:) seems to work, but it’s possible others can tell what pages you’re reading. This may be only a small invasion of privacy, but it’s a risk you should be aware of, not only for Tootsville, but on the Web in general.

Update (13:30):

Brief outages seem to have appeared around the following times, but things seem to be all right now. (Times US/Eastern)

04:57‐05:19; 06:47‐07:15; 12:27‐12:54

Update (13:40):

The 12:27‐12:54 outage might actually have been caused, at least partially, by our troubleshooting efforts.

What is TLS (SSL)?

Transport Layer Security (TLS) keeps the “conversation” between your web browser and a web server private. You can tell you’re using TLS (formerly called SSL) because a URI (web address) will begin with “https:” and your browser should show a “lock” or similar indication beside that address.

It’s most important for very private information, like credit card numbers or passwords, but it’s generally a good idea to encrypt everything you send over the web. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has a tool to help ensure that you use TLS wherever possible, called Https Everywhere.

You can check your browser’s TLS with https://www.howsmyssl.com/ instantly.

What went wrong?

Honestly, we’re not really sure, but “something” caused a “glitch” in the certificate that Tootsbook.com uses to establish a TLS connection. We’ll be monitoring it as always to see if it reoccurs.