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https and ssl certificates for my PlusNet hosted website.

mkstevo
Grafter
Posts: 26
Thanks: 6
Registered: ‎03-05-2009

https and ssl certificates for my PlusNet hosted website.

Having been a PlusNet customer for some years now I have a PlusNet hosted website. I have noticed that my site is marked as insecure when looking at it through various browsers. I'm not totally concerned, but wondered if it was possible to obtain an SSL CA for my site.

 

Looking at some older posts regarding this, I came across a message by Bob Pullen that suggested that the plusnet homepages are indeed signed with a CA, *if* they are accessed through the https portion of the homepages server. For my site that address looks like: https://homepages.plus.net/mkstevo/

 

Indeed, entering that into my browser does show a secure padlock for my site.

 

My question then is that as I own the mkstevo.co.uk domain which is serviced by 1and1, if I change the URL for the forwarding of mkstevo.co.uk from 1and1 to the https://homepages.plus.net/mkstevo address at PlusNet will that security certificate be valid?

 

My current domain at 1and1 seems to be pointed to: ns1 and ns2 at a force9 address, presumably to enable email forwarding to take place? Although my additional domain of MkEDS.co.uk is redirected to http://www.mkstevo.plus.com/mkeds/ (which in turn,redirects back to the mkstevo homepage).

 

Showing how long it has been since I did much at 1and1, I tried to visit their support pages today only to find out they're now called Ionos, and have been for many years!

 

In my defence, this isn't simple for a nearly sixty year old...

4 REPLIES 4
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 16,927
Thanks: 5,014
Fixes: 317
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: https and ssl certificates for my PlusNet hosted website.

mkstevo.co.uk is pointed directly to the Plusnet Homepages servers; Ionos aren't part of the equation, other than being the registrar of the domain. All the DNS is overseen by Plusnet given that's where the nameservers are pointed.

I don't think there's any way to preserve the integrity of the TLS negotiation for your website without the https://homepages.plus.net/mkstevo/ address being what is visible to the visitor in their address bar.

At least not whilst the site is hosted with Plusnet.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

Penny
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 1,441
Thanks: 876
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Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: https and ssl certificates for my PlusNet hosted website.


@mkstevo wrote:

My current domain at 1and1 seems to be pointed to: ns1 and ns2 at a force9 address, presumably to enable email forwarding to take place? Although my additional domain of MkEDS.co.uk is redirected to http://www.mkstevo.plus.com/mkeds/ (which in turn,redirects back to the mkstevo homepage).

Showing how long it has been since I did much at 1and1, I tried to visit their support pages today only to find out they're now called Ionos, and have been for many years!

In my defence, this isn't simple for a nearly sixty year old...


 

Hi @mkstevo 

Probably the simplest way to get what you need (given PlusNet can't provide you with https:// addresses for the domain names themselves) is to transfer the hosting to somewhere that gives you https:// *plus* e-mail for each domain.

 

I'd recommend Mythic Beasts - see their prices at https://www.mythic-beasts.com/hosting - you can host more than one domain on a single account at £2.50/month (and afaik unlimited e-mail addresses).

 

I transferred the HappyChild site to MB last summer - very reluctantly because the homepages servers at F9/PN have been brilliant for many years and the support here has always been so good.  Sole reason for the transfer was because lack of https:// addresses made the website look "insecure".

 

I am not going to pretend the transfer was an easy process 😕  not being a techie I found it massively challenging.  However I made notes at every stage of the process and in the event the whole thing went very smoothly, over a period of several weeks of setting up everything in readiness on their server (third-party domain hosting or some such, it was called) and gradually transferring things across.

 

If you decide to go with Mythic Beasts (I have no idea how their prices compare with 1 and 1 [ionos]) I'd be happy to answer questions about how to do stuff or find stuff on the MB site, relating to the whole process of setting up basic hosting and e-mail addresses.  MB are very technically-proficient but their website pages aren't especially well interlinked / signposted for us non-techie people.

They don't charge to import domain names and their renewal prices last year for co.uk domains were about half the price of 123-reg (so a significant saving if you have several).  Domain name renewal prices are at https://www.mythic-beasts.com/domains .

 

Lots of techie people on the forums here will help if you decide to move your hosting (to MB or elsewhere).  Lots of us have had to move domains over the last year or two because of the https:// factor or because business accounts were being closed -  not ideal but a lot of people have kept their broadband/fibre with PN and stayed active on the forums here, so 'the community' has continued somewhat against the odds.

Just ask Smiley  they're a friendly bunch, mostly.

.

 

Penny Rollo * * * joined Force9 on 17/02/98 * * * with PlusNet from 2000 onwards * * * personal website at pennymidasrollo.plus.com
Project HappyChild website (free educational resources for kids and schools, plus directory of charities helping children) 1998 onwards
Superusers are not PlusNet staff but do have a direct line of communication into the business to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the Community.
mavison
Grafter
Posts: 41
Thanks: 14
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎20-10-2017

Re: https and ssl certificates for my PlusNet hosted website.

I have a similar problem. I am an old Force9 customer of PlusNet, and have had a website for years.

Recently, some browsers seem to think that https://homepages.force9.net/<account>/ has certificate problems, while others are happy. 

In case I should be using https://homepages.plus.net/<account>/ I have tried that - the failing ones still fail but if accepted it cannot find the requested url. So the force9 variant is the one I should be using.

Any suggestions why some are failing?

mavison
Grafter
Posts: 41
Thanks: 14
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎20-10-2017

Re: https and ssl certificates for my PlusNet hosted website.

After some further investigation, I suspect that the server is not supplying the correct certificate chain.

I understand that Webservers are supposed to serve clients the end-entity certificate for their website, along with all the Intermediate certificates needed to connect to the root – this is known as the certificate chain. This allows the client to easily trace the signature back to the root certificate in its root store and verify the certificate.

Some clients detect the missing intermediates error, and take action to try and get the intermediate ceertificates themselves, butr this should not be required.

This is why some browsers work, and some do not.

For evidence of this problem with the Force9 homepages server, see SSL Checker at https://decoder.link/sslchecker/homepages.force9.net/443

Please can Plusnet investigate this problem?