How to set up and use your shared SSL

Dedicated Server and VPS

You must install your own SSL and enable sharing under WHM >> SSL/TLS >> Manage SSL Hosts. This can be found in our video tutorial about Managing SSL Certificates (near the end).

Shared and Reseller

All HostGator shared & reseller servers have a shared SSL certificate pre-installed for your use. To access your website using the shared certificate, you will need to know your server's secure name and your cPanel user name.

In order to determine the secure server name, you will need to first locate the server name, which is different.

Ways to locate the server name:

1. The server name is provided in the "Welcome Email" which we send upon account signup.
2. You can also locate the server name in cPanel, in the left column near the bottom.
3. Alternatively, you can run a traceroute test on your domain, which sometimes indicates the server name.

How to locate the cPanel user name:

• Shared: The user name for cPanel is provided in the "Welcome Email" which we send upon account signup.
• Reseller: Your user name for cPanel is provided in the "Welcome Email" which we send upon account signup. Your client account user names are located in WHM under List Accounts.

How to determine the secure server name:

• Shared: Substitute "secure" where it says "gator" in the server name.  For example, if you server name is gator123.hostgator.com then the secure server name would be secure123.hostgator.com instead.
• Reseller: Please contact HostGator support to determine the correct secure URL.

You are now ready to compose the secure name for your site.

To successfully utilize shared SSL, please use this format:

https://secure###.name.com/~cpaneluser/

Shared Example: https://secure123.hostgator.com/~bill/
Reseller Example: https://secure123.websitewelcome.com/~bill/

These examples use "bill" as the cPanel username. Substitute the correct cPanel username for "bill" above.

Please Note: The shared SSL path requires the username as well as the ending forward-slash for it to work.

If you do not use the correct secure server name, a warning message will appear. Learn more in the related article: Why does the free shared SSL have browser warnings?

If you experience issues with the shared SSL working correctly, please contact us via phone or live chat support and we will be happy to assist you.

Ok, now how do I post secure content, like images?

If the page has already been designed, you should not need to do anything special. The content should load securely when using the https address (URL).

However, if your designer used incorrect coding, you may need to correct some of the HTML.

Media content (an image, movie, audio) needs to be referenced with a relative path. Example:

The number one cause of insecure content on a page is due to referencing media with an absolute path. Example:

This absolute path uses http and not https, which is the crux of the problem (https must be used).

By using a relative path, part of the image location is left to be assumed. A web browser will use the actual URL of the web page.

So, if you use a relative path and the page is http://domain.com/page.html, then the image is assumed to be at http://domain.com/images/banner.jpg.

Similarly, if use a relative path and the page is https://secure1.hostgator.com/~john23/page.html, then the image is assumed to be at https://secure1.hostgator.com/~john23/images/banner.jpg.

One final warning! When creating a relative link or path, be careful about adding an initial forward slash. Example:

This example tells the browser to assume the domain part of the URL only. If your page is https://secure1.hostgator.com/~john23/page.html, then the image is assumed to be at https://secure1.hostgator.com/images/banner.jpg which is incorrect and will result in the image not displaying (404 error).