Creating and Installing Free Self-signed SSL Certificate
If you do not feel like paying money for SSL certificates, but still need to secure your site, you can create a self-signed certificate and install it on your web server. This will provide data encryption; however, your customers' browsers will show warning messages telling that your certificate is not issued by a recognized authority. Thus, using self-signed certificates is not recommended as it will not instill confidence in customers, and is likely to adversely affect your online sales.
To secure your site with a self-signed SSL certificate:
- On your Home page, click the domain name you need.
- Click
Certificates in the Services group. A list of SSL certificates that you have in your repository will be displayed. - Click
Add New Certificate. - Specify the certificate properties:
- Certificate name. This will help you identify this certificate in the repository.
- Encryption level. Choose the encryption level of your SSL certificate. We recommend that you choose a value more than 1024 bit.
- Specify your location and organization name. The values you enter should not exceed the length of 64 symbols.
- Specify the domain name for which you wish to generate an SSL certificate. For example: www.your-domain.com.
- Enter the domain owner's e-mail address.
- Click Self-Signed. Your certificate will be generated and stored in the repository.
- Return to your domain's administration screen (Home > domain name) and click
Setup in the Hosting group. - Select the self-signed SSL certificate from the Certificate drop-down box.
If there is no Certificate drop-down box on the screen, this means that you are on a shared hosting account; therefore, you need to upgrade your hosting package and purchase a dedicated IP address from your hosting provider.
- Select the SSL support check box and click OK.
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