Securing your site
If your visitors will be sharing sensitive data via your site, it's best to secure your domain with an SSL certificate.
A valid SSL certificate allows your webpages to be accessed over HTTPS links instead of the plain HTTP, thus encrypting the flow of data between your site and your visitors.
Buying a new SSL Certificate
There are many reputable certificate vendors. You may contact your domain registrar to see if they offer certificates, or feel free to use our recommendation: Namecheap's Comodo Positive SSL
You can use an SSL certificate from any reputable certificate authority though we do NOT currently accept Wildcard, Let's Encrypt, or any non-SHA2 certificates (SHA1 certificates can cause issues in the Firefox and Edge browsers).
Before buying a certificate, it's best to have a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) from your web host (or Ekklesia 360). A CSR helps to make sure that your certificate is compatible with your website.
Request a CSR
To request a CSR, provide this information in a support request:
- Common Name (ie: "www.example.com")
- Contact e-mail address
- Organization name (The full name of your organization)
- Organizational unit (ie: "Communications" or "IT Department")
- Locality (Or city)
- State (Or province; not abbreviated)
- Country
Once your CSR is generated, you can take it to your SSL Certificate vendor. The resulting certificate can then be installed on your website by a support technician. There may be an additional one-time fee to prepare your site for compatibility with secure URLs.
Using an existing SSL Certificate
If you already have a certificate purchased, contact Support for help installing. The certificate may need to be re-keyed before installation using a new CSR.
Installing the SSL Certificate
When our team installs the SSL certificate for the site, often the site will need to be moved to a different server which supports SSL. Because of this, your site's IP address may change. Therefore, it's often required to have access to your domain registrar or DNS host while you are working with the team on the installation, in case the DNS records must be updated.