SSL Frequently Asked Questions
Technical FAQ
What is a CSR and how do I generate one?
A CSR is a Certificate Signing Request. It is a block of encoded data that is generated by your webserver and contains details about your domain and organization. For instructions on how to generate a CSR on your webserver can be found in the knowledgebase.
What is a Common Name?
A Common Name is a fully qualifed domain name. For example, www.yourdomain.com or webmail.yourdomain.com. There cannot be any illegal characters in the Common Name - [! @ # $ % ^ ( ) ~ ? > < & / \ , . " '].
What Common Name would be used for a WildCard certificate?
The Common Name would be a fully qualified domain name prepended with *. (asterisk and period). For example, if the domain name is mydomain.com the Common Name for a Wildcard certificate would be: *.mydomain.com
I have not received my approval email from AlphaSSL - What do I do?
Please ensure that you have access to the email address you specified. Also, as we send unique URLs in the issued emails, be sure that your mailserver has quarantined or blocked the emails. If, after checking you cannot find the email, please contact support.
How do I install my certificate?
Please go to our detailed installation pages.
I installed my certificate, but when I goto my website, the error appears "This certificate cannot be authenticated"
This happens if the root certificates have not been installed. Please insure you have installed the correct roots. Instructions on how to install the root certificates can be found in the knowledgebase.
When I goto my website, the error appears "This page has secure and nonsecure items"
This error occurs when you are trying to reference files from your (or somebody else's ) webserver over http when you have a https session. Either change the file references, e.g. graphics, stylesheets, etc, in your HTML webpage code to https or use relative links.
When I goto my website, the error appears "The name on the security certificate is invalid or does not match the name of the site"
The SSL Certificate you purchased must only be used and accessed via the fully qualified domain name. If you purchased a certificate for www.yourdomain.com, it will not work for yourdomain.com. If however, you want to be able to secure multiple domains, a AlphaSSL wildcard product may be of interest.
I must change the IP address for my webserver, will this effect my certificate?
An SSL Certificate is issued to a domain name and not an IP address. So long as your webserver is hosting the domain name for which your SSL Certificate has been issued, the IP address doesn't matter.
I cannot view my webpages over https
This error will occur when your webserver, firewall or network has not been correctly configured to serve pages using SSL. We suggest you check the following:
1. Your certificate has been installed for the correct website
2. Your private key is not corrupt or has not been accidently deleted
3. You have assigned port 443 as the SSL port on your webserver
4. You have opened port 443 for SSL traffic on your firewall or router
I cannot install my certificate
If your SSL will not install, please insure you have followed the installation instructions.
