Testing Shared SSL with Fasthosts

[sjk1000]

Hi All
I'm at the stage whereby I have an 80% completed site and am now confronting payment and security aspects. Unfortunately, as some of you will say, I'm with Fasthosts.

I have shared SSL space with them and I want a select few pages secured. In light of previous threads, I want to know the simplest method of testing whether Fasthosts can support this or not. My alternative will be to cut my losses and move to a certified host.

Can anyone help? What's the litmus test for this?
Thanks, Steve

[stevesh]

If they provide the shared SSL free, just enter the path your secured pages will need in the configure.php files, and enable SSL and give it a try.

Zencart wil secure the proper pages when your SSl is set up.

I'm not all that fond of shared SSL - your visitors will notice the URL difference.


https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=14

[sjk1000]

Thanks for the response Steve.

I want the admin functions to be secure. What has to be copied to the secure server for this to work?

(please don't say absolutely everything)

Cheers, Steve

[Merlinpa1969]

ok I wont tell you then

[sjk1000]

...nnnngghghhhh...

...2 questions then:

1. Do I have to maintain a copy of the whole site on the secure server if I want a shared ssl?

2. Will buying a private certificate resolve my problems?

[stevesh]

It seems to depend on your host as to whether or not you need a copy of your site in the secure area. I don't with my host. I don't think a dedicated SSL certificate will fix that, but you can ask your host (or Merlin).

[sjk1000]

Hi all
I've spoke to Fasthosts. They don't know what I'll need to copy to the shared ssl space for zencart to work as they don't support it. The tech support guy didn't believe I'd have to copy the whole site for the admin functions to be secure.

Stevesh, you say you don't have the whole site in your secure area. What do you have there?

Thanks, Steve

[Merlinpa1969]

IF they require a seperate folder for ssl
this wont matter if you have dedicated or not,


and if they require a seperate folder for ssl then you will need a complete copy of the site in the ssl folder

[DrByte]

If I recall correctly, fasthosts runs their shared SSL on a separate server running Windows, and if my memory serves me correctly, nobody's been able to use their bizarre setup for SSL with Zen Cart.
Not sure if a dedicated SSL would work or not. You'll have to ask them whether dedicated SSL would bypass that weird windoze box. If dedicated can't serve the files from the same place as your non-SSL, then I recommend a different host ... you'll have far fewer headaches that way.

[sjk1000]

OK. To test whether a dedicated SSL will work I've installed a trial verisign certificate.

In includes/configure.php I have

define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://www.mydomain.co.uk');
define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'https://www.mydomain.co.uk');
define('ENABLE_SSL', 'true');

and in admin/includes/configure.php

define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://www.mydomain.co.uk');
define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'https://www.mydomain.co.uk');
define('HTTP_CATALOG_SERVER', 'http://www.mydomain.co.uk');
define('HTTPS_CATALOG_SERVER', 'https://www.mydomain.co.uk');

define('ENABLE_SSL', 'true');

define('ENABLE_SSL_CATALOG', 'false');
define('ENABLE_SSL_ADMIN', 'true');

When I select to sign into an account on my site, the response is "The connection was refused when attempting to contact www.mydomain.co.uk."

Is there anything I've done wrong in the above?

Thanks, Steve

ps I've replaced the actual domain with mydomain in the text here simply because I'm being hypersensitive about posting the link when i've still got admin and setup files as writeable in places.