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Let's encrypt - Page 2
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Let's encrypt

2

Comments

  • AbdussamadAbdussamad Member
    edited April 2017

    Sam_NH said: my thoughts exactly! I was in talks with an SEO expert

    oh right. these are the guys who believe in the magic of class c ips even though those haven't existed since the 90s?

    Google actually said that they would rank SSL sites higher. This was the carrot and they posted this on their blog years ago. The stick is slowly being rolled out in the form of the shaming of plain http sites in chrome browser. You see Google wants everyone to go SSL because NSA.

  • raindog308 said: It wouldn't surprise me if they rank sites with https higher than those without. If true, then Let's Encrypt would presumably make a site ranked higher than a site with plain old http.

    Yup, but what @William and @deadbeef were saying is that free ssl would rank less that a paid one which shouldn't happen as the goal is to encrypt all the data from user -> server or vice versa.

  • bapbap Member
    edited April 2017

    Basic answer : LetsEncrypt is better than nothing, its free anyway. And grab one of commerical cert for production / commercial purpose.

    FYI : LetsEncrypt doesnt support sub-subdomain and they are limitting the creation and renewal request. (For me) it doesnt suite for (my) critical business process.

  • ljsealsljseals Member
    edited April 2017

    @lbft said:

    ljseals said: While I do not know whether Let's Encrypt is better or worse than a paid cert,

    It's exactly the same as any other domain validated cert.

    In essence yes but with regard to expiration time and renewal of your certificate it would be easier with a paid certificate if you are going full https because they usually last for a year and you can extend them longer. I choose a paid certificate as it is cheap and many times you can have a verification logo that links to a protected site and may increase conversion.

    If you use Let's Encrypt and your certification does not renew on the HSTS standard then your website will be down. I don't think that it is worth it.

    I use Let's Encrypt but on my my e-commerce website I use a paid certificate. God bless you!

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
    edited April 2017

    @ljseals said:

    @lbft said:

    ljseals said: While I do not know whether Let's Encrypt is better or worse than a paid cert,

    It's exactly the same as any other domain validated cert.

    In essence yes but with regard to expiration time and renewal of your certificate it would be easier with a paid certificate if you are going full https because they usually last for a year and you can extend them longer.

    Yeah that one line cron job was tough. Now I never have to think about renewal, not even a year from now. Actually mine is easier than yours :D

    What prize do I win? ;)

    Thanked by 1lazyt
  • nepsneps Member

    Sam_NH said: SEO expert

    lol

  • ljsealsljseals Member
    edited April 2017

    @jarland said:

    @ljseals said:

    @lbft said:

    ljseals said: While I do not know whether Let's Encrypt is better or worse than a paid cert,

    It's exactly the same as any other domain validated cert.

    In essence yes but with regard to expiration time and renewal of your certificate it would be easier with a paid certificate if you are going full https because they usually last for a year and you can extend them longer.

    Yeah that one line cron job was tough. Now I never have to think about renewal, not even a year from now. Actually mine is easier than yours :D

    What prize do I win? ;)

    I was speaking more to not being able to certifiy based on a flaw in the program or code. The cron job is easy; however, if Let's Encrypt changes the coding or your cron job fails then your site will be down. Please keep in mind I am speaking to someone also having full https.

    This is relevant as Let's Encrypt removed support for Python 2.6. You may check out this issue https://github.com/certbot/certbot/issues/1046 . If you had the cert and if it did not renew then your site would be completely down.

    I am not bashing Let's Encrypt as I stated that I use it but not on a working/production eCommerce site. God bless you!

  • NihimNihim Member

    since the @OP is naughty I shall semi hijack the thread. Have there been any news of lets encrypt supporting wildcard style? Or do you still need to create one per subdomain?

    Also link your favourite guide / script for lets encrypt!

  • WSSWSS Member

    @Nihim given that the minimal configuration for ACME seems to already be taken for creating and vending certificates, I highly doubt that there will ever be a semi/mostly anonymous means for LET wildcards.. at least intentionally.

  • @Nihim said:
    Also link your favourite guide / script for lets encrypt!

    sudo apt-get install python-letsencrypt-apache
    
    sudo letsencrypt --apache -d example.com
    
    sudo letsencrypt renew
    
    sudo crontab -e
    
    23 1 * * 3 export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin && letsencrypt renew > /var/log/letsencrypt/renew.log 2>&1
    
    Thanked by 2Nihim vimalware
  • NihimNihim Member

    thanks though I hope there is a --lighttpd flag :p

  • sinsin Member

    My HTTPS sites always do horrible with ranking compared to my regular HTTP ones :-(.

  • antonpaantonpa Member, Patron Provider

    As I know search engines will start to discredit HTTP and not HTTPS (SSL). And nothing hear about discredit Let's encrypt.

  • moonmartinmoonmartin Member
    edited April 2017

    So much FUD in this thread.

    The only ranking I know about related to SSL is that Google said they would start ranking SSL sites slightly higher vs non SSL. I think part of that was in response to the emerging free LetsEncrypt service that they are very supportive of.

    So there is NO WAY they are ranking LetsEncrypt lower than other SSL.

  • antonpaantonpa Member, Patron Provider

    @moonmartin said:
    So much FUD in this thread.

    The only ranking I know about related to SSL is that Google said they would start ranking SSL sites slightly higher vs non SSL. I think part of that was in response to the emerging free LetsEncrypt service that they are very supportive of.

    So there is NO WAY they are ranking LetsEncrypt lower than other SSL.

    Also, Google Chrome will mark HTTP as Non Secure.

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    ljseals said: your cron job fails then your site will be down

    I take it you've never used Let's Encrypt...

    The LE cron job doesn't wait until seconds before the cert is due to expire to reissue. If it fails you have time to investigate and repair.

    And if a cron job fails and someone doesn't notice, then they're a shitty sysadmin. Even taking the crudest route available, the crontab's MAILTO will tell you if a job fails.

    ljseals said: This is relevant as Let's Encrypt removed support for Python 2.6.

    Well yeah, Let's Encrypt sucks...I was taken that as a given :-)

  • jgillichjgillich Member
    edited April 2017

    ljseals said: In essence yes but with regard to expiration time and renewal of your certificate it would be easier with a paid certificate if you are going full https because they usually last for a year and you can extend them longer

    This is a bad thing. Even the biggest companies constantly forget to monitor the duration and let the certificates expire. With automatic renewal, that's just not an issue. Additionally, shorter periods increase security because certificate leaks do happen, and aren't always noticed.

    ljseals said: if Let's Encrypt changes the coding or your cron job fails then your site will be down

    That's not going to happen, LE will be fully backwards compatible. But even if it fails due to a network error or whatever, you are hopefully also monitoring the cronjob, so you can fix it before certs expire.

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    ljseals said: This is relevant as Let's Encrypt removed support for Python 2.6. You may check out this issue https://github.com/certbot/certbot/issues/1046 . If you had the cert and if it did not renew then your site would be completely down.

    Did you even read that bug? Because 2.6 is supported and was before their go-live.

    You're talking about a bug that existed in alpha pre-released back in 2015...

  • jackbjackb Member, Host Rep

    @raindog308 said:

    ljseals said: your cron job fails then your site will be down

    I take it you've never used Let's Encrypt...

    The LE cron job doesn't wait until seconds before the cert is due to expire to reissue. If it fails you have time to investigate and repair.

    And if a cron job fails and someone doesn't notice, then they're a shitty sysadmin. Even taking the crudest route available, the crontab's MAILTO will tell you if a job fails.

    ljseals said: This is relevant as Let's Encrypt removed support for Python 2.6.

    Well yeah, Let's Encrypt sucks...I was taken that as a given :-)

    Not only that -- but they even provide expiration notice emails, so if the cron falls over with max ~24 days to expiry, they'll send an email at 19 and 9 days to expiry. Not sure if there's any more after that.

    There's no excuse for missing it :)

  • ljsealsljseals Member
    edited April 2017

    Wow, I guess people do not understand that I have no problem with Let's Encrypt. The issue comes when you go to full https site on preload. When your site is preloaded it may take weeks to get off the list. You cannot have http at all.

    The Let's Encrypt is stable but if you run an "Ecommerce" site it is downtime that you cannot afford. Using a paid certificate you at least have a year. It is more time instead of price. You do not have to preload your website but it may be a major "boost" to SEO.

    A selected subset of the members of the preloaded HSTS list:

    Google
    Paypal
    Twitter
    Simple
    Linode
    Stripe
    Lastpass
    
  • ljsealsljseals Member
    edited April 2017

    @raindog308 said:

    ljseals said: This is relevant as Let's Encrypt removed support for Python 2.6. You may check out this issue https://github.com/certbot/certbot/issues/1046 . If you had the cert and if it did not renew then your site would be completely down.

    Did you even read that bug? Because 2.6 is supported and was before their go-live.

    You're talking about a bug that existed in alpha pre-released back in 2015...

    I think they may have taken away the support and re-added when there were problems.

    https://github.com/certbot/certbot/pull/957

  • This whole expiration discussion is kind of moot... as @raindog308 mentioned, the cron job tries repeatedly to renew. If it fails, it fails; you'll figure it out quick enough. It's still easier and less work than other CAs where one has to keep track of every certificate on their own and renew it on their own and put the updated certificate on the server on their own and finally restart the appropriate services ... all on their own.

    I use the bash script dehydrated to manage my LE certs and the entire process is effortless after setup. I switched to LE last year and haven't even thought once about it since then. It all just works.

  • Symantec sent out a fudmail to its resellers a few weeks ago claiming that Google was planning to force short expirations on the whole certificate industry, so that Symantec's own 9 month restriction was just an opening shot. It's conceivable that they actually know something, but I'd suggest taking it with your own self-prescribed dosage of salt.

  • JustAMacUserJustAMacUser Member
    edited April 2017

    @ljseals said:
    The Let's Encrypt is stable but if you run an "Ecommerce" site it is downtime that you cannot afford. Using a paid certificate you at least have a year.

    A year to do something that takes a few minutes. If you're keeping track of a certificate so you know when you have one year left to renew, you might as well just use LE and keep track of it so you know when you have one month left to renew. Then just check it a few weeks before it expires to make sure it auto renews.

    I'm not discounting the apparent usefulness of purchased certificates as it affects customer perception. But I don't think it's in any way easier than using an automated system.

  • 19 days, 9 days and at the expiry time

  • jgillichjgillich Member
    edited April 2017

    willie said: Symantec sent out a fudmail to its resellers a few weeks ago claiming that Google was planning to force short expirations on the whole certificate industry, so that Symantec's own 9 month restriction was just an opening shot. It's conceivable that they actually know something, but I'd suggest taking it with your own self-prescribed dosage of salt.

    Google was in fact pushing to limit certificates to 1 year, but that failed. The maximum validity period will soon be 2 years though: https://www.venafi.com/blog/life-expectancy-shortened-for-ssl-certificates-validity-periods-reduced-to-2-years-by-cab

  • @ljseals said:
    Wow, I guess people do not understand that I have no problem with Let's Encrypt. The issue comes when you go to full https site on preload. When your site is preloaded it may take weeks to get off the list. You cannot have http at all.

    The Let's Encrypt is stable but if you run an "Ecommerce" site it is downtime that you cannot afford. Using a paid certificate you at least have a year. It is more time instead of price. You do not have to preload your website but it may be a major "boost" to SEO.

    A selected subset of the members of the preloaded HSTS list:

    Google
    Paypal
    Twitter
    Simple
    Linode
    Stripe
    Lastpass
    

    A cron job running twice a day is suggested by certbot/letsencrypt and many people online to ensure that certificates autorenew. If you're not even following their own recommendations, you deserve to have the issue of your SSL cert expiring.

    Even then, run the renew command and everythings fixed. How terrible!

  • nulldevnulldev Member
    edited April 2017

    @deadbeef said:

    @William said:
    While true Google paid the money and signed the papers for the Platinum status, not Chrome.

    There is no entity "Chrome LLC". Google itself, as company, is the contract partner and has, as this company (and not as "Chrome" sub-entity), obligations to fulfil.

    Doesn't matter to my point. Huge company, compartmentalized teams. If you really think the search engine team confers with the rest before making engineering decisions or vice versa, what can I say.

    deadbeef said: c) Could the free ssl cert be a minor ranking factor? Sure, it could. Is it? You need to test to find that out.

    >

    Considering Wosign and Startssl had zero impact and neither did Alphassl wildcards: no, a directly (and not only one side - the entire trifecta: money, influence and infrastructure) sponsored SSL project will not get degraded

    Did you run tests?

    • and, for pure liability aspect, it will not be higher ranked either.

    :D

    Now that everyone knows shared hosting/shared IP is (99.9998%) zero worse than dedicated

    If that's something everyone knows, I suggest it's time to start doubting it.

    @ljseals said:

    @jarland said:

    @ljseals said:

    @lbft said:

    ljseals said: While I do not know whether Let's Encrypt is better or worse than a paid cert,

    It's exactly the same as any other domain validated cert.

    In essence yes but with regard to expiration time and renewal of your certificate it would be easier with a paid certificate if you are going full https because they usually last for a year and you can extend them longer.

    Yeah that one line cron job was tough. Now I never have to think about renewal, not even a year from now. Actually mine is easier than yours :D

    What prize do I win? ;)

    I was speaking more to not being able to certifiy based on a flaw in the program or code. The cron job is easy; however, if Let's Encrypt changes the coding or your cron job fails then your site will be down. Please keep in mind I am speaking to someone also having full https.

    This is relevant as Let's Encrypt removed support for Python 2.6. You may check out this issue https://github.com/certbot/certbot/issues/1046 . If you had the cert and if it did not renew then your site would be completely down.

    I am not bashing Let's Encrypt as I stated that I use it but not on a working/production eCommerce site. God bless you!

    Will not happen.

    1. If your cron job doesn't run, you will get a mail from cron telling you the error.
    2. If your cron job ran but silently failed, you will get an email from Let's Encrypt 15 days before the expiry of the certificate.
    3. If you never check your mail, your site will go down. But you should check your mail.

    I was in this situation myself. My cron job was silently failing. Then I received an email from Let's Encrypt warning me about my imminent certificate expiry and I fixed it right away!

    Thanked by 1lukehebb
  • https://pastebin.com/vSRdBN5V, my renew cron (Daily). This will renew only when cert have N(30) days before expiration. So, no way for a certificate to be less than 29days and this will work with any version of letsencrypt without doing anything useless, just offline check and renew.

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