It's actually now not even giving me an error message it just will not load the forum at all
Assume we are so advanced these days that support for prehistoric Legacy browsers is simply not there anymore
(The following is a generic observation, and may not apply fully to this forum.)
Many websites are now employing encryption (https) by default, in response to the wishes and security concerns of both users and software developers. A number of different encryption algorithms may be used, depending on which algorithms are supported by the browser and the server: this is negociated when you connect to a website.
In recent years some older algorithms (many in use for decades) have been shown to be insecure. There may be a weakness in how the algorithm works, or modern computers may be so much faster that they can break an algorithm by brute force in a much shorter time than envisaged when the algorithm was designed.
Because of this, many web servers are now saying they won't support these older, insecure algorithms. (Google was one of the first big names to do so, if I recall correctly.) If the web server also allows insecure connections (http without the 's') then you can choose to connect insecurely instead. But if a web server is configured to redirect you from the http site to the https site automatically, you don't have this option.
Another example is my phone's built in browser, which no longer receives manufacturer software updates. Many of the security certificates (issued to web servers) have expired, and it can't get any updated certificates. This means my phone won't open a number of websites that use recently issued certificates. (I can open another browser which has its own updated certificates, but it's not my first choice of browser.)
I recently rebuilt an old PC (for access to some legacy hardware) and installed windows 98 on it.When trying to use Internet Explorer 4 to download drivers (and an updated web browser), I was surprised at the sheer number of websites that would not allow me to connect, all because the browser didn't know any of the recent encryption algorithms.
This is of course a bit of a bind for people who have to use an older browser for software compatibility. (I guess you may have screen reading software that insists on a particular browser version.) Still, if you are able to update the version of Internet Explorer on your Windows 7 machine, you should get a sufficiently recent browser that can still talk with the more security-minded websites. Windows 7 is still used in many corporate environments, for example.
If you want some help in looking in to this, and checking what algorithms your browser is set up to use, feel free to drop me a PM.