How do I obtain a free SSL Certificate?

If you would like to obtain a free SSL Certificate for one of your domains (i.e. “yourdomain.com”), please follow the following steps:

  1. Setup an email address “admin@yourdomain.com” and ensure that it can receive emails.
  2. Log into WebHost Manager (WHM) >> SSL / TLS >> Generate an SSL Certificate and Signing Request.
  3. Fill in all the necessary details on the form. Please take note to also type a “passphrase” at the bottom of the form – this can be something random like “abc123″.
  4. Upon clicking “Create”, you will be brought to a page containing a lot of random characters. The one that is important is the first box “Signing Request”.
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  6. Open a support ticket to Technical Support Department with the title “SSL Certificate Request – yourdomain.com” and copy/paste the entire “Signing Request” into the ticket’s content.
  7. Upon confirmation from one of our staffs, a verification email will be sent to “admin@yourdomain.com”.
  8. Follow the instructions within the email to complete the verification process.
  9. Shortly after the verification process is completed, you will receive two emails from “Comodo Security Services”. Open the email containing an attachment (.zip file).
  10. Copy the entire certificate in the text format.
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  11. Go to WebHost Manager (WHM) >> SSL/TLS >> Install an SSL Certificate on a Domain
  12. Paste the entire certificate (in the text format) into the “Certificate” field. An “Autofill by Certificate” button will appear.
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  13. Click on the “Autofill by Certificate” button. All the other fields (Domain, Certificate, Private Key and Certificate Authority Bundle) should now be filled.
  14. Click on the Install button and your SSL Certificate is now installed!

Once your SSL Certificate is installed, you may want to check whether your SSL certificate has been properly configured / installed.

How long is my SSL Certificate valid for?

Each SSL Certificate we issue is valid for 1 year from the date of issue. Once the 1 year period is up, the SSL Certificate will be considered “expired” and you will need to renew it once more. Renewing the SSL Certificate is free of charge and has the exact same procedures as obtaining a new SSL Certificate.

How do I check whether my SSL Certificate has been properly configured / installed?

You can use the following third party SSL tools to analyse the SSL certificate on your website.

  1. SSLShopper
  2. Qualys SSL Labs

SSLShopper does a basic check (completes within seconds) while Qualys SSL Labs does a very thorough and extensive check (may take a few minutes to complete). We recommend using both just to ensure everything is covered properly. If your SSL Certificate has been installed properly, the results should show something like the following:

(SSLShopper)

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(Qualys SSL Labs)

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