Forum Moderators: phranque
Has anyone got any advice on choosing someone to buy one from and what sort of prices i should be paying for and what features to look out for etc?
Yep, first you have to decide which one you want to buy. For me the purchasing decision came down to (perceived) ease of integration to the server software.
Prices ranged from about $45 to $250. I don't remember off hand. I bought one for about $128 and it was one these ones where you click on the logo which says, “point to verify” and "identity assured up to $10000". Not sure if that will ever matter much - just thought I would mention it. It's more a marketing or conversion crutch than anything.
My SSL installation was time consuming because as just mentioned they do a sort of validation on you. I would say it took a half a day just to get that sorted out.
They wanted personal information from me (name, address, and phone number), and that’s like pulling teeth in my case. Also, the domain name address had to match up with the business address, and a few other items of information had to match. That was kind of a pain, but I can see where they were coming from. And they were very good about it and very prompt. Very high marks there – and customer service was outstanding, I thought.
They sent me three text files to install on the server. This may have to be done in a particular order. Your hosting company should post a written procedure on how to install it. They may recommend a certificate company for you.
I believe with some SSL certificates you only get one file to install. This may be the case with something called “Chained SSL”, and I am out of my depth at this point. On that note, there are cheaper plain old certificates out there for about $45, but I have no experience with them.
My hosting company recommended a different company to buy from, but I wasn’t able to differentiate that one for $80+ with a $45 SSL. So for an extra $30 I went with something that had a few more bells and whistles.
Before the installation, I had to copy some key code from my hosting service and paste it to the SSL provider.
The SSL provider then sent me 3 code files to paste to the hosting server.
During the installation, I had to paste the contents of the text files into server software application text box. The server software then took the files and placed them on the server. I think the order of how this was done was important, so follow the procedures closely.
I don't know if this is always the case, but once the certificates were installed, I had to wait about 30 minutes before it actually worked. Did it need a server or process restart? Not sure.
So that's a vague overview, as I said I have only done it once so I can't give you the “pro” version.
Don't laugh, but it took me two days to figure out which SSL to buy, and then complete the job on the server. I didn’t know about WW at the time, and so I don’t know what other resources you may find here.
You might get a company to do this for a fee of $40-$100 if you are really stuck, or you just don’t want to deal with it right now.
It would have been cheaper to get someone else to do it, but then it's a blind spot in my mind - if you know what I mean. Next time I will do it myself, now that I have an idea of what is involved.
