A Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) is a domain name that specifies the exact location of a host within the tree hierarchy of the Domain Name System (DNS). In this scenario, ‘qualified’ means ‘specified’ since the full location of the domain within the DNS tree of hierarchy is specified in the name. If the name isn’t fully […]
Knowledgebase
SSL common name mismatch error explained
What Is an SSL Common Name Mismatch Error? In the event there is a common name mismatch error when you land on your website, then the common name or SAN on your SSL Certificate does not match the domain or address bar in the browser. The message that appears will depend on the browser being used. Google […]
Private key – what is it and what does it do?
What is a Private Key? A private key is a piece of code created alongside your Certificate Signing Request (CSR). These are generated on your server or other generation tool. After that, CSR is then used to create your SSL Certificate, otherwise known as the public key. These keys work together to encrypt and decrypt […]
IP addresses – what are they and what do they do?
What is an IP address? Internet Protocol (IP) addresses function a lot like real-world home or return addresses on mail. A computer or laptop is assigned one by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) through the router. More specifically, each device accessing the internet through your router will be assigned its own local IP address. But, […]
How to correctly generate a CSR for SSL
An SSL certificate can only be generated with a CSR. It contains all the information required for the certificate, such as the domain name and country code. CSR stands for Certificate Signing Request. What is a CSR? A CSR is a block of encrypted text you send to the Certificate Authority (CA) to generate an […]
CAA records – what are they and why use them?
Using CAA records will ensure your domain/s aren’t issued any SSL certificate/s you didn’t apply for — whether malicious or accidental. What is CAA? CA stands for Certification Authority — an entity that issues SSL Certificates. CAA stands for Certification Authority Authorization — a mechanism where you choose which Certificate Authorities can issue your domain […]
Why you should renew your SSL/TLS Certificate early
Recently, popular business and employment service LinkedIn allowed one of their SSL/TLS certificates to expire before renewing. This left users with a certificate error when navigating around LinkedIn posts. Causing much user confusion, it quickly became the object of Tweets and online articles. Though brief, the certificate downtime clearly caused negative publicity for LinkedIn, a […]
Will my SSL Certificate secure the www. subdomain?
It’s safe to say that www. is the most commonly secured subdomain on the World Wide Web. Many domain owners have their www. subdomain as an exact copy of the root domain due to the commonness of searching for a site by beginning with ‘www.’. Naturally, when securing a domain with SSL, one might wonder […]