Internet Explorer Connectivity and Certificate Display Issues

When you use Internet Explorer to connect to Web sites that use the "Connection: Close" header during a keep-alive connection, Internet Explorer may enter an infinite loop of trying to connect to the site. The expected behavior when this problem occurs is for Internet Explorer to continue trying to connect until the port times out or is reset.

Internet Explorer also may not show a client certificate when you try to connect to a secure Web site after you are prompted for authentication by the secure site. The expected behavior when this problem occurs is that the client certificate that is used to connect to the secure Web site is not available in the list of available certificates that you can select from for authentication validation by the secure Web site. In some cases, you might receive a "Page cannot be displayed" error message when you try to connect to the secure Web site.

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next software update that contains this hotfix.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.

The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

Note that this hotfix requires Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 2 (SP2), depending on which hotfix you install for your environment. These hotfixes are not intended to be installed on base product releases.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.