On the occasions I have seen the first message it has been because of third part software on the PC overriding the normal certificate handling. Often anti virus programs.

The second would be normal, unless you have digital certificated to sign and encrypt your mail. I have one, so mine is not greyed out.

Have a look in the Certificate manager. Tools > options > advanced > certificates to see what certificates are stored and what trust chains exist.

Thanks:

"Have a look in the Certificate manager. Tools > options > advanced > certificates to see what certificates are stored and what trust chains exist."

What should I be looking for ? I can see two for mail.uk2.net, One is flagged temporary the other, permanent. Bothe under the heading of ESET,spol.sr.o. I and below are buttons for View,Edit trust(greyed out), Import, Export ,Delete ,Add Excetion.. Clearly I don't understand this so what next ?

Appreciate your help.

John

is eset your anti virus? If so you will need to talk to them about their modifications to you certificate store, because at this point my guess is it is corrupt.

Although looking though my certificate store I can see no ESET entry and they provide my anti virus.