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I want to buy and set up an SSL certificate on one of my domain names. However, since SSL Certs involve purchases, I would like to get other’s opinions before I actually go out and buy something.

I would like to know two things:

  1. Can I purchase a simple SSL certificate (I’m looking at GoDaddy’s one-year offer on a Standard SSL Certificate — on sale for $12.99) which, as I understand it, once installed, provides “Domain-Only Validation”?

    I think that means that if someone types in https://example.com, it will still show up with a “locked” symbol in IE and a blue bar in FF. Am I correct in this assessment? (I’m looking for someone who’s done exactly this before to give his/her opinion, please.)

  2. At the programming end, I need to form an HTTPS connection to a third-party server. In my PHP-based website, I have been forming connections to an HTTP server (both HTTP and HTTPS are available), but I want to connect to the HTTPS one to offer better security to my users. I have no clue whether an SSL Certificate from GoDaddy will allow that or not, and if so, how I should go about doing that. I would like someone's opinion if they’ve done something like this before (again, with the GoDaddy SSL Certificate, please).

TRiG
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  • Gah! I made a mess of that edit. That should be *others’*, as a plural possessive. – TRiG Jul 22 '15 at 20:52

3 Answers3

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An SSL cert will provide the enhanced security for your users as you say in a). We use one from namecheap.com, as it's a bit cheaper and we avoid dealing with godaddy whenever humanly possible.

user22530
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You having an SSL certificate should neither help nor hinder you from connecting to a third-party https server. At that point you're acting just like a client, who doesn't need an SSL cert to talk to an SSL server.

Yuliy
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We've used GoDaddy certs on past project and they're fine.

For A, you are correct that it is for a single domain, typically though this is something like https://www.mydomain.com not https://mydomain.com. There is a "wildcard" certificate you can get that will be considerably more expensive that would handle https://*.mydomain.com.

For B, if you are connecting from your server (lets call this "MyDomain") to a third party server "Third", you don't need a SSL cert on "MyDomain" you will utilize the one provided on "Third".

Mike Buckbee
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