What is SSL and how does WebOké arrange it?

With an SSL certificate (officially TLS), the connection between the visitor and your website is encrypted. You can see this from https:// in the address bar and the padlock icon. Without a certificate, browsers show Not secure next to your address, and search engines rank you lower. Your email program and FTP also use certificates to connect securely.

Free certificates from Let's Encrypt

With WebOké, you get free certificates from Let's Encrypt. DirectAdmin requests them itself and also renews them itself. A Let's Encrypt certificate is valid for a maximum of 90 days; DirectAdmin renews it well before it expires. So you don't need to do anything, as long as your domain points to your package with us.

This automatic request process is called ACME in DirectAdmin, after the technology Let's Encrypt uses. For a new package, a certificate is usually ready within a few hours.

Where do you see your certificates?

In DirectAdmin, under Account Manager and then SSL/TLS Certificates. You'll land on Manage certificates.

• Certificate list (1): your certificates, with the names on them (DNS Names), how long they're valid (Validity, Expires) and how they're renewed (Renewal mode).
• DNS names without TLS certificate (2): names on your domain that don't yet have a certificate.
• ACME Settings (3): turn automatic requests on or off (see Requesting a free Let's Encrypt certificate).
• Provisioning history (4): every request, with the result. Handy if something doesn't work (see Let's Encrypt not working: causes and solutions).

If everything's fine, you'll see at the bottom: Alle DNS namen beschikken over geldige TLS-certificaten. De certificaten worden automatisch verlengd.

What do you need for a certificate?

• Your domain must point to your package. Let's Encrypt checks over the internet whether the domain really belongs to your server. If the domain still points to another provider, for example during a move, this won't work.
• SSL must be switched on for the domain. This is the Secure SSL switch in the domain's settings (see Domain settings: SSL, PHP, www and private_html). With WebOké, this is on by default.

A paid certificate?

For almost every website, Let's Encrypt is enough: the padlock looks the same either way. If you've bought your own certificate, for example one with your company details in it, you can install it yourself (see Installing your own (paid) certificate).

Can you do this in My WebOké too?

The AI assistant in My WebOké can check the status of your certificate and request a free certificate for your domain. For example, ask: {{Can you request an SSL certificate for my domain?}} The assistant first checks whether your domain correctly points to your package.