How To Setup And Install Free SSL Certificates
WebsiteMKR offers free and automatic SSL certificates powered by Let's Encrypt.
This feature allows us to create an even safer network infrastructure for our customers and their visitors, making the Internet safer overall.
Customers don't have to pay, or do anything complicated to get it active on their website.
In this article, you will learn how to verify your Free SSL certificates.
Requirements For Free SSL Certificates
There are two main requirements for a domain or subdomain to obtain a free and automatic SSL certificate:
- DNS Must Resolve - The domain must be resolving to our name servers or your Reseller name servers for the module to work. If you've recently changed your name servers you should give it a full 24 hours to propagate to the entire Internet.
- .htaccess File Must Be Writeable - In order for Let's Encrypt to validate your website it must be able to write to your .htaccess file in your /public_html/ directory. If you have customized one, you may need to temporarily re-name it to .htaccess1 until the certificate has generated.
If these above two conditions have been met, the free and automatic SSL certificate will generate within 24 hours, most of the time within an hour or two. You do not need to do anything.
How To Verify Your Free SSL Certificate
2) Inside cPanel click on SSL/TLS under Security
3) Then click on CERTIFICATES (CRT) Generate, view, upload, or delete SSL certificates on the right side of the screen.
4) You will then see screen similar to the picture below. If the Issuer doesn't say Let's Encrypt, then that means the website isn't using an auto-ssl generated certificate. If it says self signed you may wish to click the Delete link so the auto-installer will replace it.
If the above two conditions have been met, Let's Encrypt should generate.
How To Force Run The Auto Installer
Since some people immediately need an SSL certificate before the auto-installer runs, cPanel has been nice enough to add the feature where you can manually run it from inside of cPanel:
1) login to cPanel and Select SSL/TLS Status under Security
2) Click Run AutoSSL
This may take a few minutes to run, but you can always use another browser window and follow the above steps to make sure it has generated.
Here at WebsiteMKR we are proud to be part of creating a safer Internet for everyone.
