[AS467 Dave Eastwood]

Hello, is any else having trouble accessing the website?

Thanks
Dave

[AS 2 Tom Little]

Roy Brent emailed me yesterday but we got it squared away. Although I was not seeing any issues? Strange.

Obviously you've been able to post here so the forums work, what part are or did you have trouble with? Is it a certain page?

[AS467 Dave Eastwood]

Hello Tom,

It was the usual home page that I could not access.

It does seem to be working now.

I have noticed however that in the web address it is saying "Not secure" which I have not noticed before.

Would that be an issue at my end or yours?

Thanks

[AS 2 Tom Little]

Thanks Dave. From what I understand that message is due to the site not utilizing the https: version. We do not process purchase transactions or collect private information here. I believe there is usually extra cost to being able to use the https (instead of http i.e. SSL or TLS certificate installed on the website server.

Also, I *DID* trace an error that was happening on the main page - if we were not logged in, there was a script on there erroring out because it was looking for a pilot number (logged in). I have correct that now.

[AS467 Dave Eastwood]

Thanks Tom,

I never knew that about https etc....

Thanks for looking in this Tom.

[sonjamichelle]

I believe there is usually extra cost to being able to use the https (instead of http i.e. SSL or TLS certificate installed on the website server.

Tom, take a look at Let's Encrypt. They are a free SSL certificate provider used by a VAST number of sites on the net. The certs ARE strong enough for payment processing, but are most certainly suitable for you use. I'm not sure who your hosting provider is, but if they don't offr LE as an option, then I'd consider a new one. LE has become a standard option for many other hosters out there since Google's push to force everyone to use SSL or be left in the dust as far as SEO goes. Not like all the sponsored listings and spam listing don't push evryone to the bottom as it is.

[AS 2 Tom Little]

Thank you Sonja!

Yes our provider does offer a free option after looking into the control panel. I have set it up it is called "Let's Encrypt" and the certificate says it is good thru 17 Jan 2024. But not sure how these things work!

[sonjamichelle]

Thank you Sonja!

Yes our provider does offer a free option after looking into the control panel. I have set it up it is called "Let's Encrypt" and the certificate says it is good thru 17 Jan 2024. But not sure how these things work!

Let's Encrpyt sets up a schdeduled task or cron job, based on the OS your hosting provider uses. It automatically renews your LE cert every three months. The only time you have to do something is if there is an error, such as a dns failure, change in IP, or other such thing. You'll usally get an email of the failure. IIRC you might get an email of a pending renewel shortly before the operation, but I don't usually pay attention to the LE emails unless I get a lot of them in a short span of time. I get enough "system" email as it is, lol.

But, yeah, you should be good. Now Airsource members should just force a refresh on their browsers, or clear their cache and they'll the the new secure site. Your provider should also have a method that will automatically redirect all http requests to https. Make sure you turn that on too, maybe after an annoncement that you've succesfully enable https through LE and any details you might want to give for those that ar, uhm, "security picky", hehehe.

[AS 2 Tom Little]

Thank you Sonja and much appreciate you sending me the PM with the other info. Frankly I am intimidated by the whole process, and with testing on one of the subdomains (trying to add a certificate to the sub-domain) but failed. In fact, that subdomain is still not loading LOL (thankfully it is just a testing sub domain).

I'll need time to further test this to see if I can figure it out. If I can get it to work there, I will feel confident in making it work here on AirSource. The last thing I want is to take this site down!

Anyway your PM is VERY helpful and the main issue I have now is that the DNS entry field will not let me add the air-source.us to the end of the DNS record. Stupid Dotster LOL. I really just need to move our domain to Host Gator, where our website is hosted; I looked into that just now, but now seems it is best I wait until closer to renewal of domain (about 10 months) as they want $17.99 to transfer the domain.

[sonjamichelle]

I use Hover for all of my domains. I can get pretty much any domain out there from them, and transferring to and from them is free. The only company I remember having a charge from was GoDaddy, but I ditched them like a hot rock years ago.

Now, I self-host everything, either on a dedicated machine on OVH or NOCIX, or a VPS on Vultr or Digital Ocean.

Though right now, I have everything in-house in my workshop on a 2.5GBps (up/down) fiber connection with a /27 block of IP addresses. That way, I'm in control of everything, from my website and printers to PBX, Active Directory, GIT, Streaming Server, Media Server, Live Support Client, Virtual World, and anything else we may need.

I HATE relying on anyone else and being nickel-and-dimed for every request or change.