Wget SSL error can occur due to many different reasons that include Wget not supporting HTTPS downloads, no-check-certificate, the issue with secure protocol option, and son on.

Wget command help in downloading files from the Internet through the command line.

At Bobcares, we often receive requests to fix this error as part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s discuss how our Support Engineers fix this error easily for our customers.

Top causes and fixes for the Wget SSL error

It is a very generic error. When the Wget SSL error occurs, it normally pops an error message “Unable to establish SSL connection”.

Here are a few causes of the error. Let’s discuss them in detail.

Wget not supporting https downloads resulting in Wget SSL error

This error occurs when Wget does not support the https downloads in some distributions.

If we find any such error our Support Engineers fix this by compiling the source code manually using OpenSSL. After that, we can do https downloads.

Errors with the secure protocol option

Sometimes, the error may be with the secure protocol option. In such cases, our Support Engineers fix this by adding a secure-protocol option with a suitable protocol argument.

We set this using the command below.

secure-protocol=protocol

We can set the protocol to any of these ‘auto’, ‘SSLv2’, ‘SSLv3’,‘TLSv1_1’, ‘TLSv1_2.

And, this can resolve the error easily. However, the older versions of TLS are vulnerable.

Wget error due to Date/time

Date/time mismatch can be a cause for the error to popup.

We double-check the date/time and refresh the SSL certificate to fix this error. We use the command below for refreshing.

/usr/sbin/update-ca-certificates --fresh

No-check-certificate

Similarly, we can also fix the error by setting “–no-check-certificate“. On setting this, Wget does not check for servers certificate.

This will generally prompt for a password check. But this method is not always recommended.

[Need any further assistance with the Wget errors? – We can help you fix it!]

Conclusion

In short, when the Wget SSL error occurs, it pops an error message “Unable to establish SSL connection” which is a generic error. In today’s article, we discussed how our Support Engineers resolve this error easily for our customers.