HSPHERE: Using a Shared SSL Certificate

If your provider offers a Shared SSL certificate, you can use it instead of purchasing a certificate of your own. Unlike a regular SSL certificate, it costs less, doesn't require a dedicated IP, and belongs to an equally trusted Certificate Authority. The disadvantage of shared SSL is that it can be used only with third level domains.

Shared SSL requires that your site runs on a shared IP.

To secure your site with Shared SSL, do the following:

1. Select Domain info in the Domain Settings menu.
2. Click the Edit icon in the Web Service field.
3. Enable Shared SSL for the domain in the list.
4. Agree to charges, if any.
5. If you are using a second level domain (example.com), you will be asked to create a third level domain alias (e.g. domainalias.example.com):

Now the site is available both at the non-secured second level domain name (e.g. http://example.com) and at the secured third level domain alias (e.g. https://example.websitesource.net). Note that Shared SSL certificates work only within one domain level, i.e. for user1.example.com and not for www.user1.example.com. In the example above, the certificate will not work for https://www.example.websitesource.net, and your visitors will get the warning: "The name on the security certificate does not match the name of the site".

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