"Your connection is not private"

GuyInDogSuit said:

No, no, no. You don't understand. My PC isn't infected with anything. It's not the only device affected. Tablets, phones, etc, all have this error.

Ok, I'm just thinking that the inappropriate usage was more likely a due to malware calling home. The malware might be on your machine or one of the other devices using the router.

Make sure that you're contacting the true ISP (don't ever call a phone number on a pop-up )
... I've never heard of any provider requiring that a user take a course

There's usually a way to reset a router to factory defaults (a reset hole, a reset button, or long hold the power button). If your network requirements are simple, then this might be something to think about.

Try going to a site that throws the error and change the URL from HTTPS to HTTP.

That's all that I can think of.

Slartybart said:

Make sure that you're contacting the true ISP (don't ever call a phone number on a pop-up)
... I've never heard of any provider requiring that a user take a course

I know some countries were going to introduce a Three-Strikes Rule (or in the USA, 'Copyright Alert System'). What it consists of is ISP's giving users Copyright Infringement warnings before finally cutting them off.

From the 'Copyright Alert System' Wikipedia article:

According to a leaked internal document, AT&T decided that after a 6th alert, a user's "access to many of the most frequently visited websites [would be] restricted" until they completed an "online educational tutorial on copyright".

So in this case it sounds like maybe the ISP has blocked/restricted internet activity on that account until the account holder takes a 're-education' course on copyright infringement. And as a result of this, someone has tried to bypass the ISP's block screens by changing the router settings to try to route the internet traffic through something else (hence the browser warnings on https sites). Or, maybe the ISP itself has decided to intercept all traffic from that account to monitor everything the users are doing until they take the course (including intercepting https traffic, hence the warnings), but I think this would be pretty unlikely as that would open up a whole can of worms.

I think the OP needs to get the bill payer to take the 're-education' course so the block/restriction is lifted by their ISP and then get the bill payer to set the router back to factory default settings and ISP default settings.

Well, at some point yesterday, he did that course, because I checked Google and was able to use the search again.

GuyInDogSuit said:

Well, at some point yesterday, he did that course, because I checked Google and was able to use the search again.

Go to Harbor Freight and get one of those Orange mini-sledges and put on it in Black marker or paint pen "Attitude Adjuster", and let him know that if he does it without a VPN like SmartDNS, the Sledge gets introduced to the head.

I use Kodi all of the time and some of the sites for the add-ins like Exodus always state to use a VPN, because there are ISP's who will kill the connection, even though you are paying for some of the sites that the movies stream off of.

You can set Smart DNS at the laptop and computer and use it on multiple machines or use it on a Single Board Computer like one of the Octa Cores such as the Cubitruck. It has more than enough power to knock most consumer Gateways that people use as "Edge Router" when they want to keep home from guest stuff.

ARC1020 said:

I know some countries were going to introduce a Three-Strikes Rule (or in the USA, 'Copyright Alert System'). What it consists of is ISP's giving users Copyright Infringement warnings before finally cutting them off.
.....

Thanks - learn something new every day.

AT&T: Copyright Alert Program