Dumb question re: SSL and configure.php

Hi all,
First time posting, newish Zenner. I have a dumb question regarding setting up SSL:

We've had our online store (https://www.mainstreetgallery.com/store) up since January and finally got the go ahead from the boss to get an SSL certificate so hopefully we get more sales. We're running 1.3.8 and everything's great. Have contacted hosting company who will install our SSL cert for us (my preference and boss's preference too). Upon contacting them the tech person said,

"A cert can be installed for 179.00 - this includes the dedicated IP address the cert will need to remain secure, as well as the cert and it's installation. The one minor glitch in your case is that your site hosts on a server that will not accept more dedicated IP addresses. I see you use ZenCart which makes moving a bit of a bugger. "

She gave two options: 1) Have them move the site for us for $$ or we can move it or 2) See if Zen Cart has a secure checkout URL. I looked at the forums here and thought that changing the URL in the two configure.php files to her suggested "sales.mainstreetgallery.ca" would work. But now she wrote back that she wonders if it will look for more Zen Cart at that address since we won't have installed the entire shopping cart there. That seems logical to me, but I am not sure.

Since I can't find any info on this myself, can someone tell me if just changing the secure URL will work or will we have to move the entire store ?

Thanks very much,

Allissa

First of all your store didn't even load up in my browser. I get redirected to Yahoo Search.

Second. Either you are not providing enough information on here or your host is the worse ever.

For using any SSL you will need a dedicated IP. So by them telling you, they can't install dedicated IP on the server it means you need a different host right away.

I would suggest finding a host in the Zen Cart certified host link above. Hostmonster works good for small website. They won't charge you for installing your SSL. It takes a couple of minutes to do and if you know what you are talking about you can't talk your way out of paying it with any host.

So to sum it up.

SSL is very important to any online business.
Dedicated IP is a must (You have to pay for it, usually a couple of dollars a month).
Zen Cart desn't have a way to assign secure URL to checkout page. The CMS is smart and configured to display secure URLs only when needed on important pages only where you collect information from customers.
Your host is bad and you need to run away. Moving your cart isn't that hard to do, if you follow the information on this forum you can do it yourself.

Oh, the URL for the store is wrong because I'm an idiot. It's https://www.mainstreetgallery.ca/store. Forgot we are in Canada for a moment there.

Thanks for your quick reply.

Well, I suppose we could switch hosts. The situation here is that I work for a small small gift store in a small small Canadian city. The owner wanted an online store because a similar store south of us has one. That's it. No research, no anything. So I said I'd look into it (have limited HTML experience, that's it) and ended up creating this store for her, as Zen Cart is so easy to set up and use and the forums are great. When presented with a few hosting options about a year ago, she chose our host solely because it was Canadian and she thought she had heard of them before (bleh). So we've done a year of hosting with them and just paid the first of four quarterly installments. I'm not sure if the host would argue that there is any yearly contract inplace, but I don' think there was any implication of that, so theoretically we could switch. I am thinking, however, that I'd get resistance from the owner, who would probably rather just give them a lot of money than there be any problems. Anyway, this is just an aside and doesn't really have to do with anything at all.

I see that no matter if we stick with the host or not, we'll have to move the site. Scary, but doable as you said.

Thanks again.
Any more advice/opinions/rants greatly encouraged.

Allissa