Wordpress - build your own website - howto, tips & links - beginners to advanced

[AdamBrunt]

So, it turns out the sites my other half would be potentially updating all currently use the Elementor add on.

Not sure if that is a plus or not but, judging by YouTube, it would certainly seem to make the task of content changes a lot easier

[driver8]

Elementor is a very popular page builder - it's very good and quite snappy.

[driver8]

Excellent article on the best fast free Gutenberg themes:

How to Choose a fast WordPress Theme: Guide + Comparison (with detailed test)

TL;DR -

• Blocksy is completely free (no pro/freemium version)
• Kadence has a header builder
• Neve is mobile-first and came out fastest in this excellent real-world test.

[Psycho]

Not sure if anyone can help but I thought I'd ask, as I'm having a nightmare with a new website.

The website is perfect and has been done the way I always do them. The client is happy and wants to go live. No problems.

But now that I've gone live I'm having issues with the Let's Encrypt SSL certificate.

I've done everything in the usually way and I've never had any problems but this website is showing as "not secure".

The only difference with this website is that the client wanted to keep his email service with 1&1 and the domain name is registered with 1&1.

I'm hosting it on my account (not 1&1) and I have change the domain name DNS A types to point to the hosting IP. This worked and the website can be seen but it is showing as "not secure".

I've been back and forth with my hosting company and I don't seem to be getting anywhere.

When I use an SSL checker online it says:

*Tick* Server Type: Apache
*Tick* The certificate should be trusted by all major web browsers (all the correct intermediate certificates are installed).
*Tick* The certificate was issued by Let's Encrypt.
*Tick* The certificate will expire in 89 days.

*Warning* None of the common names in the certificate match the name that was entered (domainname.co.uk). You may receive an error when accessing this site in a web browser. Learn more about name mismatch errors.

Also, I use the Really Simple SSL plugin and for this website it says:

Completed: SSL is enabled on your site.
Completed: An SSL certificate was detected on your site.

Open: The mixed content fixer could not be detected due to a cURL error:*cURL error 60: SSL: no alternative certificate subject name matches target host name 'www.domainname.co.uk'. cURL errors are often caused by an outdated version of PHP or cURL and don't affect the front-end of your site. Contact your hosting provider for a fix.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Wooglie]

I'm not an expert, but does the certificate mention both domainname.co.uk and www.domainname.co.uk?

[Chris Locke]

Don't have much experience with SSL certs, but does your certificate contain both www and non-www domains?
https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/...ntered/85946/2

Edit: Beaten to it!

[Psycho]

For some reason the certificate only seems to include "www.domainname.mainhostaccountname.co.uk"

This seems to be how all of my other websites certificates work but they also include the actual website domain name, "www.domainname.co.uk" (removing the ".mainhostaccountname" bit).

For some reason the certificate for this website doesn't include the actual website address, which I assume is the problem!

Does this need to be manually added by my host company or is it just generated by Let's Encrypt?

[Psycho]

I've just compared the certificate from a website that does work with the one that doesn't and I can see the following.

Working website includes the following:

Extension: Subject Alternative Name
Critical: NO
DNS Name: domainname.co.uk
DNS Name: domainname.mainhostaccountname.co.uk
DNS Name: www.domainname.co.uk
DNS Name: www.domainname.mainhostaccountname.co.uk

Where as the certificate for the website that doesn't work only includes:

Extension: Subject Alternative Name
Critical: NO
DNS Name: domainname.mainhostaccountname.co.uk
DNS Name: www.domainname.mainhostaccountname.co.uk

But it is missing the following:

DNS Name: domainname.co.uk
DNS Name: www.domainname.co.uk

I'm not sure if you can physically edit the certificate to include these details... I don't have the option via cPanel but maybe the host company can do this their end?

[Chris Locke]

The thread I pointed at mentioned about editing certificates, but also involved rebooting Apache ... maybe deleting the certificate and recreating a new one doesn't involve that (I have no idea) but now you have more details, I'd get the hosting company to assist - they should be used to this....

[Psycho]

Just another thought, the nameservers were not changed for the domain name registered with 1&1 to point to the new hosting account. I'm assuming this wasn't needed because they still wanted 1&1 to manage their emails and only the DNS A type needed to be change.

Does that sound correct or should the nameservers have been changed as well?

I made the assumption that changing the nameservers would affect who managed the emails, i.e. the new hosting account?

[JonLaidlow]

Originally Posted by Psycho

Just another thought, the nameservers were not changed for the domain name registered with 1&1 to point to the new hosting account. I'm assuming this wasn't needed because they still wanted 1&1 to manage their emails and only the DNS A type needed to be change.

Does that sound correct or should the nameservers have been changed as well?

I made the assumption that changing the nameservers would affect who managed the emails, i.e. the new hosting account?

Pretty sure that I have my A nameservers pointing to one location and my site name servers pointing elsewhere

[Psycho]

Originally Posted by JonLaidlow

Pretty sure that I have my A nameservers pointing to one location and my site name servers pointing elsewhere

Thanks. So changing the nameservers to the new host account probably won’t make a difference because the A types have already been changed?

I’m reluctant to test it out and screw something else up, i.e. their emails.

PS. I have been in contact with the host company but the last communication I had from them was around midday. I’ve sent some more details and suggestions to them but no response yet.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Psycho]

The hosting company just got back to me and asked me to delete the DNS AAAA records, which I've now down.

I'll now have to wait up to 24hrs.

Fingers crossed.

[Psycho]

It's working!

[AdamBrunt]

Originally Posted by Psycho

It's working!

Glad you got it working Psycho.

Bit late to the party but we use Let's Encrypt at work for 90% of the sites we create and it just works. Mind you, it's a lot easier if you are using IIS servers (which you have direct access to and control over) and can you https://certifytheweb.com/ to do it

But that has now got me thinking about what we are going to do when we move from on-premises IIS servers to Azure

[driver8]

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