Secure Sockets Layer or SSL Certificates have become very important when safety shopping on the internet and all reputable websites will be using SSL certificates which encrypts all personal or bank details from browser to server to protect information and secure all purchases. There are a variety of SSL Certificates available with a range of prices the more sensitive your information the more you will need to be spending but this will mean safety for your valid customers.
The most important thing to remember is that each bank has different requirements for their security so always check what your requirements are with your individual bank if you accept credit card details and payments over the internet. You will always need a dedicated or unique IP address for your company as the SSL certificate cannot but put on a shared IP address unless the certificate is shared but this is a very rare situation.
You will also need to generate a Certificate Signing Request or CSR and possible generate a key too if you have never had an SSL certificate before but all of this can be done through your servers control panel.
To Install the SSL:
1: Log on to your server. Generate a key if you haven’t already got one. Include the http://www.homepage in your domain name.
2: Next you must generate the CSR and select the one with a www most appropriate when given a choice.
Then answer all questions asked by the server and the CSR should be displayed (although sometimes it is emailed to you). Make sure you copy it into notepad just in case and ensure all the random characters are copied in too everything from —BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST—
to —END CERTIFICATE REQUEST—
3: All SSL vendors do things a little bit differently from here on in so make sure you get the individual companies instructions but typically you will need to paste the CSR into a field with certain contact details for yourself as well as the vendor.
4: You must also select an email address for the approval of your certificate and the signing authority will communicate via this address which must be authoritative over the domain or server. An example is [email protected] sometimes it’s webmaster or sales
5: When the certificate is approved an email will be sent that look a lot like the request form but will be larger and have —BEGIN CERTIFICATE— at the start. You must then install the certificate by pasting it into a field in the server. Sometimes certificates can be uploaded from a text file but then the server will install the certificate.
If everything has gone to plan then it should all be installed without any problems but if you have had trouble then contact your service administration team.