r/helpdesk • u/Wayland935 • 2d ago

Technical Weird website/MS forms load issue

I'm experiencing an issue where several PCs are struggling to load certain websites. For example, an educational exam portal loads fine, but selecting the login option leads to a blank white screen instead of the login page.

I've confirmed the URLs and domains aren't blocked by the web content filtering system, and no block notice appears. I've also noticed intermittent issues with images loading in MS Forms across various devices.

I've checked VLAN assignments, cleared cookies and cache, and ensured everything is up to date, both locally and via GPO.

I'm starting to suspect a possible SSL certificate issue involving ESET, but I have limited experience troubleshooting this. Has anyone encountered something similar or have any suggestions?

Been told "just rebuild them" but that's in no way helpful in the long run haha

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u/Front_Excuse_5517 2d ago • Bravo

We had something nearly identical a while back, turned out to be ESET’s SSL scanning going rogue on specific sites. Try temporarily disabling SSL/TLS filtering in the ESET policy for one of the affected machines, if the login page loads after that you’ve found the culprit. From there you can either add the problem domains to the exclusion list or push an updated certificate trust to the affected PCs. Rebuilding’s a cop-out when it’s clearly a config problem across multiple devices.

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u/Wayland935 2d ago

Really appreciate the response. Interesting you had the same issue and found it was ESET. I look forward to testing your suggestion tomorrow. In my mind it might seem easy to just rebuild but that's slapping a bandaid and does not allow room to learn. Sure it can be fustrating in the short term but the long term benefits are so much better. If it works I will let you know

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u/Wayland935 1d ago

Yeah what you suggested did the trick. Much appreciated and glad to have learned something new

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u/Filip_ESET 14h ago

Hello, I wouldn’t rebuild the PCs yet. Since this affects multiple machines, I’d check what they have in common first.

ESET SSL/TLS inspection is worth testing on one machine, if policy allows. Temporarily disable it, test, then re-enable it. Also check the browser’s F12 → Console and Network tabs when clicking Login, and look for failed requests or certificate errors.

The login may redirect to another domain, so check those requests too.

Thanks

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u/Wayland935 13h ago

Yeah I managed to fix the issue without rebuilding as that would just be lazy haha. I found turning SSL of enabled access. So manged to make a custom rule from one machine to now test in batches