A lot of people don’t feel any shame to admit that it is complicated and difficult to renew or activate an SSL certificate. In fact, I also experienced some difficulties in the past. SSL activation even wastes a lot of time. Fortunately, there is no need to go through hassles. When you have the right information, it is possible to avoid various hassles associated with the SSL setup and activation process.
Here are 3 good tips to help you with the process.
1. Speeding Up Validation Process for Extended/Organization SSL Certificate
When the authorities perform an extended or organization validation for SSL certificates, they use many different sources to check the business details. Some of the most common sources include online phone databases, government databases, yellow pages and more. Authorities check these sources to determine whether the business is registered in reputed online directories or not.
In the next step, the authorities compare various details the applicant provided them against listings on different databases, such as Registration Name, Legal Registered Name, City, Street Address, State/Region, Zip/Postal Code, Country, Phone Number and more. In case the applicant’s details do not match, the authorities request the applicant to come up with more supporting documents. This may cause delays in the validation process. In some cases, the delay may last for weeks.
When you want to avoid these kinds of delays, you need to make sure that all the details provided to the authorities match in different databases. For instance, your details should match in Whois, SSL Administrative Contact, Organizational SSL and Validation SSL. This allows you to speed up the validation process. In fact, your application won’t have to go through a lengthy application process.
2. Adding Subject Alternative Names to Multi Domain Certificate
There’s a useful piece of information regarding addition of subject alternative names to multi domain certificates. Unfortunately, most people aren’t aware of this information. In most cases, multi domain certificates include other additional domains called SANs. In some instances, you may not be required to exhaust the available slots during your initial activation process. However, it’s important to understand that you may be required to change additional domains later.
A lot of people wonder how to perform this task after the SSL certificates have been issued. When you want to modify or add domains, you need to apply for reissuance of certificates. There’s a lot of information available on the Internet about adding domains at a later stage after the SSL activation process.
Regarding SSL activation, when you will be performing the reissuance of the certificates, you will enjoy the privilege of adding domains to SSL certificates. In addition to this, you will also be able to modify existing ones or purchase additional domains to be secured by the multi domain certificate.
Related: GoDaddy SSL Certificates: Secure – Trusted – Cheap
3. Avoiding Downtime While Renewing SSL Certificates
An SSL certificate can be renewed around 30 days prior to expiration. When you consider hosting and domain renewal, you just need to make the payment for the renewal. Validity is automatically extended. When it comes to SSL certificates, this process is completely different. An SSL is encrypted code, which is inimitable for each certificate.
The code comprises of various details, including the common name, such as the domain for which the SSL certificate was issued, encryption algorithm, contact details, company name and more. In addition to this, the code contains an expiration date for the SSL certificate, which unless the code is reinstalled and changed on the server, there’s no impact on the expiration date.
The only way to update the expiration date is to get the SSL certificate renewed, validated and issued. Once you purchase the renewal certificate, you need to have the certificate activated, validated and even installed on the server. When you get the new certificate, it contains an expiration date. This makes sure you don’t receive certification expiration warnings anymore.
In case a certificate is issued during the period extending upto 30 days before the expiration date, a new validity period is added to the certificate’s expiration date. It’s counted from the previous expiration date of the certificate.
