Purchasing a SSL certificate for nodejs rest api server

Published August 20, 2014 5:20 pm

I had written about this here when I purchased last time a SSL certificate from godaddy and did not renew it. With the expired certificate, client does not connect to the production server. Hence, I have to look into and purchase a new certificate today.

I found namecheap.com to provide competitive pricing. I could get 1 year certificate for USD 9. Without further analysis, I went ahead and purchased it from them. Few notes below:

  1. I used paypal account to pay instead of directing giving them my credit card details.
  2. Activating the SSL certificate is a separate process than purchasing it. It has to be done after purchase is completed.
  3. I had purchased COMODO positivessl domain certificate
  4. paypal let me pay in INR currency on visa card. It cost INR 570.

Steps for activation of the SSL certificate on namecheap.com

  1. login
  2. menu->manage SSL certificates
  3. click activate link on the dashboard
  4. prior to (3) – I have to have CSR (certificate signing request) ready.  Refer below for my steps with bluehost. You may have to use your webhost or own server like IIS admin to get a CSR which in turn requires a private key generation.
  5. paste the CSR text into the wizard
  6. select the approver email id. I had created an email admin@domainname.com and selected that option.
  7. It gave some error saying — server details could not be verified for the approver email. do you want to continue? — I opted to continue.
  8. submit on next page
  9. After submit – the SSL certificate process kicks off and status on the namecheap.com dashboard keeps getting updated. be patient.
  10. on approver email id – u receive an email and need to click the link for verification.
  11. after few minutes – u receive on your registered email (with namecheap.com) – your SSL as a .zip attachment.

Steps for generating CSR on bluehost

  1. on control panel, search cert – you will find security-> SSL/TLS manager
  2. follow generate key link.
  3. I used 2048 bit and a friendly name – to identify the key later.  generate the key.
  4. follow generate CSR link using the key generated earlier. fill all the fields in the form; they are self explanatory.
  5. finally – it gives CSR as encoded text.