Why do I get a certificate warning when trying to access my control panel? Print

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For people using our Orion Server (ns.config.net), when visiting your control panel address for the first time, you may see a security warning, which states something along the lines of the following:

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This Connection is Untrusted

You have asked your web browser to connect securely to www.yourdomainname.com:2xxx, but we can't confirm that your connection is secure. Normally, when you try to connect securely, sites will present trusted identification to prove that you are going to the right place. However, this site's identity can't be verified.

What Should I Do?

If you usually connect to this site without problems, this error could mean that someone is trying to impersonate the site, and you shouldn't continue.

Technical Details

www.yourdomainname.com:2xxx uses an invalid security certificate.

The certificate is not trusted because it is self-signed.
The certificate is only valid for host.nsconfig.net
(Error code: sec_error_untrusted_issuer)
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The reason you see this error is because, for security reasons, we use our own self signed certificate which is more secure than a standard domain certificate.� The problem is that the "This connection is untrusted" warning appears when using a self signed certificate as nearly every Web browser checks that an https connection is signed by a recognized Certificate Authority.

As the connection is self-signed, it is not automatically recognised by a CA. so this will be flagged as potentially risky and error messages will pop up telling you the connection is not trusted.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:� You need to add the exception to your web browser's configuration permanently for your control panel address and you will not see the warning again (unless settings are reset or cleared.)

In Firefox for example, you will see a line that states "I understand the risks" click on that line and it brings up the following writing:

"If you understand what's going on, you can tell Firefox to start trusting this site's identification. Even if you trust the site, this error could mean that someone is tampering with your connection.� Don't add an exception unless you know there's a good reason why this site doesn't use trusted identification."

You will see an "Add exception" button, click that button, then you will see a box that pops up - check that the https:// address shown in the exception includes your domain name (you may also see numbers in the address given.)� Then ensure that "permanently store this exception" is ticked on the window that pops up, and then click "confirm security exception."� This will then allow you to connect to your hosting control panel on further occasions without seeing the warning.

Other browsers may have a slightly different way of adding the exception and we suggest researching how to add a self signed SSL certificate for your chosen browser. if you are unsure how to add the exception with the browser you are using, then please raise a ticket and our support team will be happy to assist you, although we can only advise as a browser is third party software.


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