Activate SSL Certificate

[StevenUK]

Hi

I have purchased a SSL Certificate to use on my store and I have been asked by the SSL Issue Company the following and not sure were to start to activate my certificate.

Thank you in advance

The following message below displayed, when I clicked on activate my SSL Certificate in the issuing store?


Important: Please use CSR code with 2048-bit private key to activate your SSL certificate. According to modern security standards using CSR codes with private key size less than 2048 bits is not allowed.

What is a CSR?
The Certificate Signing Request (CSR) is a small, encrypted text file containing information about your organization and the domain you wish to secure. A CSR is what you give to a Certification Authority, to generate your SSL certificate. It is an essential part of obtaining an SSL certificate.

Where can I find instructions on how to generate a CSR?

Thanks Guys.
Stephen

[kobra]

Your hosting account management portal should have this...
You might ask your host

[frank18]

Where can I find instructions on how to generate a CSR?

You create that in your cPanel.

SSL/TLS Manager

The SSL/TLS Manager will allow you to generate SSL certificates, certificate signing requests, and private keys. These are all parts of using SSL to secure your website. SSL allows you to secure pages on your site so that information such as logins, credit card numbers, etc are sent encrypted instead of plain text. It is important to secure your site’s login areas, shopping areas, and other pages where sensitive information could be sent over the web.

[StevenUK]

Thank you Guys I will try what you suggest.

[StevenUK]

Hi Guys

I've just found out that my new hosting company does not support SSL Certificates at this time (Whatever that means) As a complete novice to all this does anyone know of a decent Host at reasonable cost, that does support this? I'm in the process of building my store, thankfully my store is not completely up and live, (i.e. just the main front index page) i'm thinking about building my store complete then transfer to another host is this a straightforward process?

Thanks everyone in advance

Steven.

[frank18]

Hi Guys

I've just found out that my new hosting company does not support SSL Certificates at this time (Whatever that means) As a complete novice to all this does anyone know of a decent Host at reasonable cost, that does support this? I'm in the process of building my store, thankfully my store is not completely up and live, (i.e. just the main front index page) i'm thinking about building my store complete then transfer to another host is this a straightforward process?

Thanks everyone in advance

Steven.

Scroll to the top of this page and click the button "Services" - you should find a good ZC savvy host there.

[balihr]

Hi Guys

I've just found out that my new hosting company does not support SSL Certificates at this time

A "hosting company" that doesn't support SSL certificates? Who's your host - some neighbor's kid with a server in grandma's basement? Seriously, what kind of host doesn't support SSL certificates? That was acceptable back in the early 90s, but nowadays even the dead-simple sites use SSL since it can be purchased for like $5 per year...

As a complete novice to all this does anyone know of a decent Host at reasonable cost, that does support this?

This is not something that's usually allowed to be discussed here, but here are a few friendly suggestions: look for a UK based host, make sure they have 24/7 support and try to get an account with cPanel since it's probably the simplest for a novice. From my experience, I'd suggest staying faaaar away from HeartInternet and 1and1 when it comes to hosting. Hosting recommendations are not allowed here, but you're welcome to PM me and I'll send you links to 2 UK hosts that I quite like.

I'm in the process of building my store, thankfully my store is not completely up and live, (i.e. just the main front index page) i'm thinking about building my store complete then transfer to another host is this a straightforward process?

It's a fairly simple process when you're used to it, but A LOT of people struggle with it. Since you're still building your store, I believe it would probably be best to move to a new host and do any changes there. It might save you some headaches later on when the store is finished...

[RodG]

As a complete novice to all this does anyone know of a decent Host at reasonable cost, that does support this?

Personally, I think a more important question is why do you think you need SSL?

Do you even know what it is and what it does? Do you know what it *doesn't* do?

If you can't answer these questions then you probably don't need it.

If your answer is 'it has something to do with security' (or something similarly vague) you probably don't need it.

Cheers
RodG

[balihr]

Do you even know what it is and what it does? Do you know what it *doesn't* do?

Uhm... Does it even matter?

If you can't answer these questions then you probably don't need it.

I can't believe anyone would say that, and especially not someone as competent and knowledgeable as you...

It's an ecommerce site - I'd say using an SSL certificate is highly recommended and should be considered as mandatory. It doesn't help or protect you if you're hacked, but it still serves a purpose of not (easily) intercepting communication between 2 computers. I don't think I can make this any simpler.
With customers entering their personal info when creating accounts, I'd say we're talking about some really sensitive information and, well, if for no other reason, SSL should be in place to boost customer confidence.

Next, Google really does prefer sites using SSL certificates over those that don't use it. Put aside content quality and all other factors and compare 2 identical sites - one using SSL and the other not. Which one do you think would come up higher in SERPs? Hint here.

The total cost of en entry-level SSL certificate comes down to around $20 per year (lemme put it this way: 5 cents per day). If one doesn't want to "invest" (if we can even call that an investment) that into (as mentioned earlier) at least a confidence boost, then I'd rather not buy anything from that store...

[StevenUK]

Thank you everyone for your help it's much appreciated