Q. Does it matter that I have a shared IP for using Whoiscart and is it worth me getting a dedicated SSL?

Ans. Both Shared as well as Dedicated SSL fulfill the main aim of SSL; i.e. transmitting data in encrypted form over the networks, so it depends on you whether to stay with Shared SSL or opt for Dedicated SSL. One of the main considerations in using a shared or dedicated SSL is the URL and how it will appear to your customers.

With Shared SSL, the URL may look something like this:

https://secure.yourhost.com/~username/

Whilst with dedicated SSL, the URL is determined by you, either as another registered domain or as a sub domain of your website domain name. You can have your private secure url such as https://secure.yourname.com/

Dedicated SSL gives your site a more professional appearance in their address bar when someone is in the secure area. Using Dedicated SSL certificate projects a better image to your clients. You can place a private SSL secured seal on your site and build the trust of it.

We offer dedicated SSL certificate for £25 per year. A dedicated IP is free if you purchase the SSL certificate from us.

Q. After purchasing an SSL certificate, how long does it take to get it installed on my site?

Ans :- It takes 30 - 60 minutes to generate a SBS Instant basic SSL certificate. We provide free Shared SSL, but if you are looking for a dedicated SSL certificate then you will have to pay a fee of £25.00 for it. We provide a wide range of dedicated SSL certificates starting from £25.00 per year per certificate. All the available SSL certificate options are listed at http://www.eukhost.com/ssl-certificates.php

You get a dedicated IP free of charge if you purchase the certificate from us. If you purchase the SSL certificate from some other provider then you will be charged £2 per month for a dedicated IP address.

If you try to buy certificate from GeoTrust, VeriSign, thawte, rapidssl and others then they won’t send the certificate before verification. If you have an existing verified account with them then they do it instantly.

Q. Do you offer Dedicated IP Addresses? I think I may need this due to SSL Certificates. Is this correct?

Ans. Yes, we do offer Dedicated IP Addresses as an addon on our web hosting plans. the cost for one dedicated IP is £2.00 per month or £20.00 per year. Cost of a private SSL certificate is £25.00 per year. You won’t need to buy an IP address separately for using private SSL with us if you buy the SSL certificate from us. We provide Dedicated IP free with private SSL certificate.

If you wish to use a private SSL certificate from another provide on our hosting plan, you can do so. You will only need to buy a dedicated IP from us to be able to use the SSL certificate from another provider. Apart from SSL certificate installation, a dedicated IP is usually needed for Anonymous FTP access, for SEO purposes and for some other IP specific applications.

When you have a dedicated IP, you can view your website using your domain name or the IP address. If you domain is not yet pointing to your hosting account, this will allow you to view your site online, without using your domain name. This is mainly an advantage to new clients, so they can view their website prior to their domain resolving.

Q. What is Dedicated SSL Certification as opposed to a the Shared SSL Certification? Is this free and supported by you?

Ans : Shared SSL is free but you will need to use a URL like https://secure.ukhostsupport.com/~username/ which doesn’t look good for high profile business sites with wide range of products. We offer various types of Dedicated SSL Certificates starting from £25.00 per year per certificate. A dedicated IP address is also free if you purchase an SSL certificate from us.

Q. What is SSL certificate? How is it beneficial?

Ans :- SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer which is a protocol developed by Netscape for transmitting private documents via the Internet in secured way.

With a SSL certificate, you are able to encrypt data between the server and your clients. This is extremely useful on billing systems, contact forms, and e-commerce systems.

Your domain name will be assigned with a dedicated IP address. Whether you type in your URL or the numeric form of its IP address, both will bring you to the same domain.

Dedicated SSL certificate will be either created on secure URL which will look like https://domainname.com. The cheapest SSL certificate costs £25.00 per year which is inclusive of a dedicated IP address for a year. If the certificate is purchased from some other provider then it will cost £2.00 per month or £20.00 per year for dedicated IP address.

Dedicated IP is essential for the SSL Certificates as the Secure URL accessed by a visitor gets encrypted with the public key which loads in visitors browser and the encrypted data is then decrypted on the web server using private key which remains stored in a hidden location on the server. Apache configuration file can maintain only one record for SSL certificate and Apache cannot share one certificate for multiple URLs unless the Certificate is a wildcard SSL Certificate designed to work on multiple sub-domains of a single unique domain. One single SSL Certificate cannot work for multiple different domains. No one can sniff your data or decrypt your SSL secured data unless they manage to get your private key from the hidden location on the server.

eUKhost offers shared SSL on all its shared and reseller hosting plans. Shared SSL is installed on our servers hostname which would look like https://ourserver.eukhost.com/~username/. If your visitors have no problem in submitting forms or billing information through such URL then there should be absolutely no problem for you to use our shared SSL Certificates for your secure URL requirements.