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Windows 7 missing "Trusted Root Certification Authorities"

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Freedom Kira:
Alright, one problem to another. This may be the most bizarre problem you've ever seen. First, a bit of background info.

I am running Windows 7 Starter on an Asus EEE netbook. The wireless network at the University I attend uses a type of secure authentication through WPA2-Enterprise and a validating server certificate called Thawte Premium Server CA. So, as you may have guessed, the procedure for connecting to the network involves adding the network and selecting the server certficate from the list of Trusted Root Certfication Authorities.

Up until a few days ago, I had been connecting to the network without any problems. Recently, though, I had been running into problems that involved the network manager to repeatedly prompt me for credentials, which we are supposed to use our Campus Computing ID (CCID) and password for. After several tries, it would then tell me that I was unable to connect to the network. I then try to troubleshoot it, and after running for a few seconds it tells me an unexpected error has occurred, and the error message just says it can't continue. This has all happened consistently, no matter how many times I try, on which days I try, or how many times I reboot the netbook.

So I finally decided to try removing the network and re-adding it. So I do that, and everything is fine and dandy until I reach the part where I am supposed to select Thawte Premium Server CA from the list of Trusted Root Certfication Authorities. Here's where it gets strange - there is absolutely nothing on the list. The procedure says to use "Microsoft: Protected EAP (PEAP)" as the network authentication method, but even if I choose "Microsoft: Smart Card or other certificate" I don't get any certficates in the list.

I looked around Google and found some things. There was someone here having trouble adding a certficate to the list and was told to look into certmgr.msc (found by searching the start menu) and adding it there. So I take a look at the listing. Under Trusted Root Certification Authorities -> Certficates, I see all the certificates that should be listed. So, without a doubt, the certficates have not been removed from my computer. But still, for some reason the Network Manager does not see those certificates.

How am I to fix this? I am also going to send a message to IT support to see if they can help.

Side note: my girlfriend has a similar model (the only difference seems to be the processor) and hers is still perfectly fine. Both of our netbooks are kept up to date via automatic Windows update. In other words, when adding the network and changing properties, the only difference between our procedures is that I am unable to select the certificate on my computer but able to on hers.

Edit: Fixed it. IT help took a look, first guy spent ten min looking at the problem to no avail. Then someone else comes by and takes one look at it and noticed the date was set to December 2099... Which would in turn mean all the certificates were expired. I don't understand how it could have changed... But anyway it's good now.

fohfoh:
Well, looks like yours resolved.

Another issue I ran into similar to this was that certain browsers will totally block off the certificates and you can't get on the network. (They fight each other). For instance, I cannot get onto the network via wireless login with chrome. But Firefox lets me through (albeit with a crapload of warnings and "OMFG I WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE! RUN WHILE YOU CAN" (paraphrased) messages.

IMO, the IT people are just straight up morons. The certificates are always shown to be erroneous and stuff and I can log in fine as long as I "cancel" acceptance of the certificate. Idk wtf they're doing, but it's not the right thing.

Freedom Kira:
Yeah, heh.

I actually have certificate problems too, just not exactly what you described. Some pages have an expired security certificate, which causes Chrome and Firefox to sound an alarm. I'm going to try adding the certificate to the list of trusted certs and see if that eliminates the problem. All Firefox does is permanently add an exception to its list.

Yeah, I don't know either. At least it doesn't completely cripple access.

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