Host forcing me to use https across entire site?

[morr]

Hi all,

I've just downloaded and installed the latest version of Zen Cart, and purchased an SSL cert for the domain. I had the cert installed prior to installing the cart, so configured Zen Cart to take utilise it.

My problem is not really with the cart, but rather with my host, and having no prior experience using SSL I'm hoping someone here can advise me....

Noticing that whenever the cart tried to open a https url I received an error, I attempted to load the main site using the https prefix, i.e. where I would normally use "http://www.downlightcoversdirect.ie" I tried to use "https://www.downlightcovers direct.ie", this resulted in a warning about the cert being untrusted.
I contacted the host (Liquidnet) and their response is as follows...

"In order for a certificate to work properly, all the links on the site must also be using https://. If there is even one link that is not with https://, the above error will be returned. Please check your site, correct all the links and try again."

This do me does not seem correct, has anybody else experienced this, or am I interpreting something wrong?

From searching thru the forums here I can see that I really don't want to run the entire site thru SSL for performance reasons.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Maurice

[kobra]

Well they apparently are not at all familiar with ZenCart
As you have determined this is not the desired way to operate
ZenCart code is smart enough to know when to switch to ssl for only those pages/functions where sensitive information is to be exchanged

I can't see where your cart is???

[morr]

Thanks for the reply,

The cart is not yet linked from the site (its currently populated with the supplied test data), its at www.downlightcoversdirect.ie/catalog


Maurice

[kobra]

purchased an SSL cert for the domain.

The certificate is listed as belonging to LiquidNet LTD. and not you and I suspect that this is at issue

If you purchased a certificate then it should be issued to www .downlightcoversdirect.ie and not LiquidNet

I added the space to break link

[morr]

If you purchased a certificate then it should be issued to www .downlightcoversdirect.ie and not LiquidNet

A good point,

I have now queried their initial response, they replied.....

"Well, I am telling you what the certificate requirements are. If you like, we can refund your certificate and purchase a new one from another authority in order to test additionally."

I think that rather than chase up the issue of who the cert has been issue to or other matters, I may be as well off getting the refund and purchasing a cert elsewhere. Then at least if the new cert operates in a similar manner (presumably due to some odd server setting with liquidnet) I can at least move the entire domain, cert etc to another host and hopefully get it working elsewhere. A pity as I have all my sites with liquidnet at present and have had no issues up to now.


Maurice

[Website Rob]

Kobra is correct and the problem is easily seen on your site with most any Browser.


Technical Details

www. downlightcoversdirect. ie uses an invalid security certificate.
(spacing is mine to prevent Search Engine indexing)

The certificate is not trusted because the issuer certificate has expired.
The certificate is only valid for LiquidNet Ltd.

(Error code: sec_error_expired_issuer_certificate)


Although it's probably better to go the route getting a refund, if you get your hoster on the phone and you both view your site with the same Browser then you should both see the same Error msg. -- which would be hard for them to say it's some other problem / requirement.

[kobra]

Yeah, if they actually purchased one for you they have not installed it
OR????

[morr]

This morning I re-contacted the hosts and requested a refund on the SSL cert.
A different tech responded

"Please ignore ***'s comment. It seems that there is a problem with the certificate itself and I will need to forward it to our admins for further investigation on the case and we will get back to you as soon as there is an update on the case."

So hopefully they'll get it sorted and I can start to configure and use Zen Cart

[Website Rob]

Don't let the Cert hold you up. You can get started on installing / customizing Zen Cart as using or not using a Cert makes no difference in that regard. It is designed by default to work without a Cert. Once you do have Cert you simply make an edit to one line in each of the two 'configure.php' files and it's done.

[morr]

Thanks all, the host has sorted the cert issue and all seems well now

Now to follow the tutorials and get the store configured.......