Getting a SSL certificate applied to my domain / website

[Carl Fimble]

My business website used to have httpS at the start, now it doesn't work unless I remove the S. This only happened fairly recently, and is as a result of GoDaddy (who host my site) only supplying a SSL certificate for one year. That year is now up, and instead of letting me know they just removed the certificate, and so I was left wondering why the fuck my website suddenly didn't work unless I removed the S from the HTTPS bit in the URL. GoDaddy can issue me with a new certificate but it would be £70 a year plus VAT, do they can GoDie.

My domain name is with Gandi who offer a free SSL certificate for a year (then loads cheaper than GoDaddy after the free year), but I'm struggling to work out how to get it attached to my domain, or to my website. 

My plan eventually would be to move the hosting of my site over to Gandi, who are cheaper and (seemingly) less shit than GoDaddy, and that would mean I could get the SSL certificate applied easily, but I don't have enough time to rebuild my entire site right now.

Hopefully someone can help, I just need the site to either have httpS again, or for it to appear when someone clicks a link from Google. 

I've probably explained it badly so just let me know if you need any more info, or if you have any questions. 

Thanks. 

[AlfredTheLittle]

I think they just run out and have to be renewed now and then, have you contacted GoDaddy? You should be able to get it put back.

 I recently discovered Google sites, where if you have a fairly straightforward website you can have it hosted for free by Google, you can use the domain name you have bought to replace the sites.google name so it's just a completely normal website but hosted for free, and is Https 

Previously I used siteground, they were fine but I had to pay for hosting - the SSL certificate was free buta but of faff as I used to have to add it manually.

[Carl Fimble]

3 hours ago, AlfredTheLittle said:

I think they just run out and have to be renewed now and then, have you contacted GoDaddy? You should be able to get it put back.

 I recently discovered Google sites, where if you have a fairly straightforward website you can have it hosted for free by Google, you can use the domain name you have bought to replace the sites.google name so it's just a completely normal website but hosted for free, and is Https 

Previously I used siteground, they were fine but I had to pay for hosting - the SSL certificate was free buta but of faff as I used to have to add it manually.

Yeah, GoDaddy said it would be £70+VAT a year, so fuck that. If I was rich I'd probably just go for it as it'd be the quickest and easiest way to get my site running properly again, but that's a rip off, and I'm pissed off at them not telling me that the SSL I got free for a year had expired (until my call with them today) I've been fannying about for quite some time trying to fix it.

Thanks for the tips on alternative hosting, I do want to move it, but want something that will be cheaper, and just work. Gandi are cheap, will let me use WordPress to build the site and can apply a httpS certificate automatically. I dunno if wordpress is any good or not, my site isn't fancy though, just got to find the time to move it over from GoDaddy...

I need to fix this thing now though, I've emailed Gandi to ask how to use the free (for a year) SSL certificate I've got with them, tried going into my Google webmaster tools thing to see if I can chance what they use in links to my site- from httpS to http, it's all changed though and I can't find out where to do it, not even sure if I can. 

Stress.......

[AlfredTheLittle]

41 minutes ago, Carl Fimble said:

Yeah, GoDaddy said it would be £70+VAT a year, so fuck that. If I was rich I'd probably just go for it as it'd be the quickest and easiest way to get my site running properly again, but that's a rip off, and I'm pissed off at them not telling me that the SSL I got free for a year had expired (until my call with them today) I've been fannying about for quite some time trying to fix it.

Thanks for the tips on alternative hosting, I do want to move it, but want something that will be cheaper, and just work. Gandi are cheap, will let me use WordPress to build the site and can apply a httpS certificate automatically. I dunno if wordpress is any good or not, my site isn't fancy though, just got to find the time to move it over from GoDaddy...

I need to fix this thing now though, I've emailed Gandi to ask how to use the free (for a year) SSL certificate I've got with them, tried going into my Google webmaster tools thing to see if I can chance what they use in links to my site- from httpS to http, it's all changed though and I can't find out where to do it, not even sure if I can. 

Stress.......

Sites.google.com - like everything it takes a little bit of playing around, but basically you can just use one of their templates, write out your website, add your pictures, link your domain name, and you've got a fast loading, professional looking website for free.

[Carl Fimble]

29 minutes ago, AlfredTheLittle said:

Sites.google.com - like everything it takes a little bit of playing around, but basically you can just use one of their templates, write out your website, add your pictures, link your domain name, and you've got a fast loading, professional looking website for free.

Google though....

Free though....

Aaargh!

I could set my wife to recreate what is on the site now, and then make it live and adjust my DNS settings to point to it. 

Tempted actually, I pay about a tenner a month now, the Gandi option would be €8 I think, free sounds even better. 

Google though...

[Carl Fimble]

12 hours ago, AlfredTheLittle said:

Sites.google.com - like everything it takes a little bit of playing around, but basically you can just use one of their templates, write out your website, add your pictures, link your domain name, and you've got a fast loading, professional looking website for free.

I spent some time last night copying over text from my existing site, Google Sites seems ok, though I've not been able to find a way to add all that SEO pish- tags and descriptions for each page. Looking online I read something that said that stuff doesn't get looked at anymore by search engine bots, and there's not a one click "add a contact form" button. I think I can create a form using Google's online version of MS Office, and add that to the page, but I'm worried not having tags and SEO stuff might mess with my Google search page ranking.

I checked again this morning and my existing site now has links to the non secure version, so links from a Google search work again, so it's not as urgent as it was, but I quite like the fact a Google Sites website would be free, and my site needed updating anyway. 

Need to work and this doesn't feel like work, aaaargh!

 

[AlfredTheLittle]

1 hour ago, Carl Fimble said:

I spent some time last night copying over text from my existing site, Google Sites seems ok, though I've not been able to find a way to add all that SEO pish- tags and descriptions for each page. Looking online I read something that said that stuff doesn't get looked at anymore by search engine bots, and there's not a one click "add a contact form" button. I think I can create a form using Google's online version of MS Office, and add that to the page, but I'm worried not having tags and SEO stuff might mess with my Google search page ranking.

I checked again this morning and my existing site now has links to the non secure version, so links from a Google search work again, so it's not as urgent as it was, but I quite like the fact a Google Sites website would be free, and my site needed updating anyway. 

Need to work and this doesn't feel like work, aaaargh!

 

I know nothing about SEO, but logically Google sites should work well with Google search. My 'sites' site definitely loads a lot quicker than my old WordPress one, have to admit though that the only reason I have a website is because people expect to see something, I don't actively use it to get business and do the minimum I can get away with, so my needs might well be different from yours

[spunko]

You could just use Cloudflare for your DNS (nameservers). They offer free SSL certificates and you don't need to piss about installing anything. All you need to do is change the nameservers to theirs.

 

[BoSon]

Aye, SSL certs should be freely available these days. Some browsers complain if a site isn't https as they're considered unsafe, so the industry moved to free SSL certs provided by most of the big players.

GoDaddy (and companies they own, such as 123-reg) are just rip off merchants, sucker you in with the free or cheap initial offerings then bang up the prices at renewal time, and sucker punch you with autorenewals so first time you may notice is after you've already paid. Like so many profit first companies these days they work on the principle many people are too lazy to move elsewhere so will pay up without checking out the competition.

 

[Carl Fimble]

2 hours ago, spunko said:

You could just use Cloudflare for your DNS (nameservers). They offer free SSL certificates and you don't need to piss about installing anything. All you need to do is change the nameservers to theirs.

 

This is all over my head, but I've gone into Gandi where my domain name is, and I've clicked on the Nameservers bit- it has three addresses. 

If I'm understanding this right then I could change these three entries to point towards Cloudfare, and that alone would mean my site appeared as httpS again? 

Would I need to pay Cloudfare for this do you know?

[Carl Fimble]

21 minutes ago, BoSon said:

Aye, SSL certs should be freely available these days. Some browsers complain if a site isn't https as they're considered unsafe, so the industry moved to free SSL certs provided by most of the big players.

GoDaddy (and companies they own, such as 123-reg) are just rip off merchants, sucker you in with the free or cheap initial offerings then bang up the prices at renewal time, and sucker punch you with autorenewals so first time you may notice is after you've already paid. Like so many profit first companies these days they work on the principle many people are too lazy to move elsewhere so will pay up without checking out the competition.

 

Yip, they do seem like they're big into charging for everything. I only went with them as I was forced to move the site from MS, and GoDaddy supposedly would allow me to copy the site across as files rather than rebuilding the whole bloody thing. Copying files over didn't work so I ended up having to start from scratch. 

I'm now looking at rebuilding it using WordPress with the plan being to have Gandi host it cheaply, but the WordPress site builder seems really unintuitive, and I'm worried I'll have to pay WordPress to remove the "Made using WordPress" shit at the foot of each page, AND pay Gandi to host it, so given up on that idea now. 

Google Sites seemed easy to use, and would've been free, but not being able to mess about with the SEO worries me.

I'm totally unsure what site I should use to rebuild my website, as I trust none of them not to fuck me after a year for silly money, or cause some sort of problem that means I need to build the bastarding thing yet again. 

I just want it to work, and be cheap, it doesn't have to be fancy or anything.

 

Edited January 13 by Carl Fimble
Sp

[spunko]

23 minutes ago, Carl Fimble said:

This is all over my head, but I've gone into Gandi where my domain name is, and I've clicked on the Nameservers bit- it has three addresses. 

If I'm understanding this right then I could change these three entries to point towards Cloudfare, and that alone would mean my site appeared as httpS again? 

Would I need to pay Cloudfare for this do you know?

1. Sign up for a free account at Cloudflare

2. Type in your domain name

3. They will detect most things and tell you what to update and what to leave.

4. Then activate the free SSL certificate for your domain

 

I can help you with it but it may involve a few hours of downtime. If you are processing payments on your website directly then don't do the above because it won't be fully PCI compliant.

[nirvana]

another free service https://letsencrypt.org/

[nirvana]

2 hours ago, Carl Fimble said:

I'm now looking at rebuilding it using WordPress

wordpress is bollocks if u ask me, if you only need a static site use a 'static website builder'

even if you're selling stuff just plug into those fukkers beginning with s.......stripe that's it.......NOT to be confused with strike who are bringing bitcoin to the masses 

Edited January 13 by nirvana

[spunko]

1 hour ago, nirvana said:

another free service https://letsencrypt.org/

This is good but its too much of a ballache for those who aren't proficient with ssh etc. 

@Carl Fimble does your hosting come with cpanel?

Edited January 13 by spunko

[nirvana]

1 minute ago, spunko said:

those who aren't proficient with ssh etc

we can teach him that too! 

[Carl Fimble]

2 hours ago, spunko said:

This is good but its too much of a ballache for those who aren't proficient with ssh etc. 

@Carl Fimble does your hosting come with cpanel?

No, my GoDaddy hosting is just using their website builder, so there's no cpanel.

I've literally just gone into Cloudfare and started what you advised above.