When antivirus TLS interception blocks the connection
MirrorFill connects to your broker — Rithmic, Tradovate, or Volumetrica — over an encrypted TLS link. Some antivirus and internet-security suites sit in the middle of that link, decrypt it, and re-encrypt it with their own certificate. Norton is the one people hit most, but any suite with "HTTPS scanning" or "SSL/TLS interception" can do it. When that happens to a broker gateway, the handshake can fail and your connection never comes up.
Symptoms
- Test returns no accounts, or hangs, then times out.
- The connection status stays "connecting" or flips to "disconnected" right after you add the login.
- It works on another machine or network, but not this one.
- You recently installed or updated a security suite.
- Other apps are fine, but the broker connection specifically won't establish.
These point at the network path, not your credentials. A wrong username or password returns an auth rejection — quick and explicit. A stalled or timed-out handshake is a different problem.
Why it happens
TLS interception — sometimes labelled HTTPS scanning or an SSL "man-in-the-middle" feature — swaps the broker's real certificate for one signed by the antivirus. The gateway, or the client validating it, sees a certificate it doesn't expect and refuses the connection. That's the security layer doing its job. It just can't tell a trading gateway from anything else it inspects.
How to fix it
Two honest options. Prefer the narrow one.
- Whitelist MirrorFill. In your antivirus, add the app to the allowed or excluded applications list so its traffic skips TLS scanning. Interception stays on for the rest of your machine.
- Turn off HTTPS/SSL scanning for this connection. If your suite has an "HTTPS scanning", "encrypted connection scanning", or "SSL interception" toggle, disable it for the trading app — or temporarily, just to confirm the cause. In Norton this sits under the firewall and secure-connection settings.
Menu names differ by product and version, so check your antivirus's own help for "HTTPS scanning" or "SSL interception."
Then test again
- Reopen Accounts and press Test (the lightning-bolt button on the connection row). Your accounts should appear within seconds.
If they still don't, the cause is elsewhere — a firewall rule, a VPN, or the wrong gateway pick. Work through testing a connection next, and confirm your Rithmic system and gateway are set correctly. On a work machine, a corporate firewall or proxy can intercept TLS the same way, and you may need IT to allow the broker gateway.
Quick answers
Will whitelisting the app make my machine less safe?
It narrows scanning for one app you chose to trust, not your whole system. Leave protection on everywhere else.
Does this happen with every broker?
Any encrypted broker connection can be intercepted the same way — Rithmic, Tradovate, or Volumetrica. The fix is identical: exclude the app, or turn off HTTPS scanning for it.
How do I know it was the antivirus and not my login?
A blocked handshake stalls or times out. A bad login returns an auth error. If Test hangs rather than rejecting you, suspect the network path first.