What is SSL?

The SSL (and TLS) protocol is the Web standard for encrypting communications between users and SSL (secure sockets layer) e-commerce sites. Data sent via an SSL connection is protected by encryption, a mechanism that prevents eavesdropping and tampering with any transmitted data. SSL provides businesses and consumers with the confidence that private data sent to a Web site, such as credit card numbers, are kept confidential. Web server certificates (also known as secure server certificates or SSL certificates) are required to initialize an SSL session.

Customers know when they have an SSL session with a website when their browser displays the little gold padlock and the address bar begins with a https rather than http. SSL certificates can be used on webservers for Internet security and mailservers such as imap, pop3 and smtp for mail collection / sending security.

Why are HostNexus SSL Certificates so cheap compared other providers?

The days of expensive certificates are long gone thanks to the wisdom and innovation from GeoTrust who rapidly shook up the industry a few years ago. Through our partnership with GeoTrust we have access to certificate products at a greatly reduced rate and these costs are passed to our customers.

Do HostNexus certificates work just like Verisign and Thawte certificates?

Yes! And here's why. When connecting to a webserver over SSL, the visitor's browser decides whether or not to trust the website's SSL certificate based on which Certification Authority has issued the actual SSL certificate. To determine this, the browser looks at its list of trusted issuing authorities - represented by a collection of Trusted Root CA certificates added into the browser by the browser vendor (such as Microsoft and Netscape).

Most SSL certificates are issued by CAs who own and use their own Trusted Root CA certificates, such as those issued by GeoTrust. As GeoTrust is known to browser vendors as a trusted issuing authority, its Trusted Root CA certificate has already been added to all popular browsers, and hence is already trusted. These SSL certificates are known as "single root" SSL certificates. GeoTrust owns the Equifax root used to issue its certificates. Therefore HostNexus/GeoTrust GeoTrust certificates are as trusted as Verisign and Thawte.

Who can apply for a Certificate?

Anyone wishing to provide a confidential and secure link between server and customer's browser can apply for a certificate. You don't need to be a company, all you need is a domain name!

Your order form asks for a CSR. What is a CSR?

A CSR is a Certificate Signing Request. Before an SSL Cerificate can be issued you need to create part of the certificate on your server account and this is the CSR. This is the proceedure for Plesk system:

1) Login to your Plesk account and navigate to domain.com > Certificates
2) Click on "Add New Certificate".
3) Give your certificate a name and fill out the form (select 2048 bits).
4) Click "Request".
5) On the main Certificates page click on the name of your newly created certificate.
6) Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see the CSR. Copy this in full to your clipboard including the BEGIN and END lines like so:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
MIIBxTCCAS4CAQAwgYQxCzAJBgNVBAYTAlRXMQwwCgYDVQQIEwNkZGQxDT
BAcTBGRkZGQxDDAKBgNVBAoTA2RkZDENMAsGA1UECxMEZGRkZDEhMB8GA1
d3d3LmFyaWVzLmRucy1zaGllbGQuY29tMRgwFgYJKoZIhvcNAQkBFgltZUBtZS5j
UZwpCVRMRX0hy+yfGCN0Pqpo2Zhaqlh42iee9lQhso5PZJ4EDwB3s2y/PY2NQEq
AOfKm/tYShkq+jCFfzWLm/S/A+cvUQCoQQkIFMQICIqZlu6YfHBvd5LoKs0YjF9S
gM5SEHEJfWqzk/SE6g1vCWVgXaEaM9X/Ag==
-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

7) Paste this CSR into the SSL Certificate order process.

Installing Certificates

Our SSL Certificates are Domain Validated. What this essentially means is that we check that the person applying for the certificate has full control over the domain by sending an authorizing email to an address on the domain. HostNexus will install certificates for free on any domain resolved to one its servers as we have domain control access. If your domain doesn't resolve to one of our servers you can still purchase a certificate but you will need to manually authorize the request and the certificate will get sent to the admin contact email address found via a domain whois lookup.