Today we are proud to finally present the ability to handle SSL certificates in our control panel. You can buy SSL-certificates, upload your own certificate, create a signing request and create self-signed certificates directly in our control panel.
Some words about SSL
SSL is a security mechanism used to encrypt communications between two devices on the Internet. In short, the encryption takes place in real time so that the information exchanged between you and the other device (Web, e-commerce site, forums, chat, etc) will not be intercepted or manipulated. SSL is used for example when shopping online so that your credit card information will not be intercepted.
In practice SSL certificate works like this:
- You visit an e-commerce website and you are about to confirm your purchase with a credit card
- The site you are visiting has hopefully SSL and the SSL session starts
- The e-commerce site and your browser first decide which encryption method will be used, and a “handshake” process will begin in the background
- Data is sent between your browser and e-commerce page, and this data generates the encryption keys that are ultimately used
- During the “handshake” time and decision upon encryption method, they also confirm their identities through SSL certificates. E-commerce site confirms simply to your browser that the site it is reffering to is the one it should be.
- When all is clear, your purchase is confirmed, and data between your e-commerce site and you, is sent in a safe way.
Of course there are many different variations and different types of SSL certificates. We showed here only a short example to describe why and when SSL certificate comes in handy.
Buy certificate
Ordering the certificate
In our control panel we offer QuickSSL through Geotrust for 152 USD/year. Choose the website you want to buy certificate for and click on add a certificate.
Mark your choice buy certificate and fill in credentials.
IMPORTANT! You have to have one of the default addresses for confirmation set up, so confirmation to your certificate will be sent there. (E-mail address is always included in our packages, no matter if you have domain or hosting package, but you have to use our email service, or put a forwarding on any of the addresses in the list so that you can receive e-mail)
When you are done, you click on Buy certificate. The certificate will be sent to you once we process your payment. You can pay via credit card or invoice.
Confirm and download your certificate
When you have confirmed your certificate purchase or when the invoice is paid, you will get two e-mails from Geotrust. One e-mail is sent to the address you gave when you registered your account with City Network. The e-mail is addressed to you as the client ordering the certificate.
The other one is sent to the domain owner, which is also why you do not get to choose where our confirmation email is sent, but must choose one of the default addresses. This is a standard in order for SSL to avoid just anyone to be able to order an SSL certificate for the domain at any time.
In the confirmation email that is sent to a domain owner, there is a link, where you as an owner confirm the certificate. When the confirmation is done, the certificate is sent to the client (e-mail address you gave when creating an account with us).
Upload a certificate
No matter if you hav an existing certificate, or just purchased one from us, you need to upload it into the control panel. This is a part of a security process that is a standard for all SSL certificate handling, all for your safety.
Preparations
Your certificate consists of a piece of text in the email message you receive from Geotrust. Copy and paste this text into an empty text document and select to save the document with the extension “.CRT”. This is important because you can not just paste the text in the control panel, you have to upload it as a document. How the certificate looks like, depends on the provider. If you already have a certificate file from another provider, upload it as is to the control panel.
Upload a newly purchased certificate
If you decided to buy a certificate from us, it will look like this, when you mark current domain in your list.
The control panel saves the information that you have chosen to buy an SSL certificate and is waiting for you to upload the certificate that you got from Geotrust via e-mail. Click Add to CRT and upload your certificate.
When you have uploaded your certificate , click save and then activate, Done!
Uploading an existing certificate
If you already have a certificate, you choose the domain that you want to add certificate for, and mark your choice with I have a certificate. Follow the instructions and upload your certificate with your key that you got from your certificate provider. Remember to Activate your certificate.
Things to remember after uploading a certificate
- When you activate your certificate, your website will get a new IP-adress
- It can take up to 5 minutes before your certificate is active due to reconfiguration
- Keep in mind that the old address can be cached so you won’t be able to access the site through SSL until TTL expires.
Create a signing request
We fully support SSL and ofcourse we don´t want to close the doors for other certificates. Choose to generate Certificate Signing Request is you need to buy a new certificate but don´t want to buy the one we offer. By choosing the domain you want to use and mark the choice to generate Certificate Signing Request, preparations in our control panel are done so you can use whatever SSL certificate you want. Fill in your credentials, read the instructions in the e-mail that we send to you, and then talk to your certificate provider for guidance. When you get the certificate from them, upload it the way we showed above.
Generate a self signed certificate
ATTENTION! We do not recommend this type of certificate for public websites!
Of course you can sign your own certificate if you want to do so. If you read our example with E-commerce websites at the beginning of this post, self signed certificate is almost like an identity card issued by yourself. You are essentially trying to prove that you are who you are, with yourself as a witness.
This type of certificate is usually used for internal use in tests where it is not worth buying an authentic certificate.
Choose the domain to which you want to add a self signed certificate, click Add a certificate and them mark generate a Self Signed Certificate. Fill in the required details and click Generate Certificate.
