Creating and Installing Free Self-signed SSL Certificate
If you do not want to purchase 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:
- Go to Domains > domain name > SSL Certificates (in the Additional Tools group). A list of SSL certificates that you have in your repository will be displayed.
- Click Add SSL 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 (Domains > domain name > Web Hosting Settings (in the Web Site group).
- Select the self-signed SSL certificate from the Certificate menu.
If there is no Certificate menu 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.