How To Enable HTTPS On Your Website For Free

Cyber crimes are one of the fastest growing crimes on the planet. Most of the hackers hack a website through your Web browser and spywares. Cyber security experts are one of the most in-demand jobs in USA. One of the most important ways to start securing your website is by implement SSL. Here are some more Tips How To Build a Secure Website. In this article, author talks about about how to implement SSL on your website without costing you a dime.

Hey folks!

Have you noticed C# Corner is now equipped with SSL? Just look in the address bar of your browser to locate HTTPS written at the start of the URL.

Yes, the website is now running on HTTPS and is more secure than ever. Importantly, the SSL Certificate we have applied is free and open source. And yes, we, the development team, had to burn extra oil of the office lamps to implement this SSL. Here is a walk-through of the process so as to make you acquainted with the process of how to implement the SSL without spending a single cent.

Before making the website HTTPS, let's understand what SSL is.



SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is a cryptographic protocol which was developed by Netscape in the 90s, which enhances the web application security and enables a secure communication over the internet. TLS (Transport Layer Security), a successor over the SSL developed by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), enables transport layer security and improves the SSL security.

Now, the question is - what is HTTPS?

HTTPS is an abbreviation of HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. In very simple terms, HTTPS means Hypertext Transfer Protocol with SSL/TLS.

Cost of an SSL Certificate

Guys we know that if we want to make a site HTTPS, we need to purchase an SSL certificate from an authentic SSL seller, such as Godaddy, Comodo, Digicert etc. Commonly, if you purchase an EV (Extended validation) Multi-Domain SSL certificate, its cost is around $489.00 USD/year.



As I said, we have applied a free and open source SSL for C# Corner; let me share with you how can you enable HTTPS on your website for free.

Enable HTTPS on your website for Free

Yes! there is an open source SSL available, that is Let's Encrypt which is implemented on C# Corner. If you want to verify that, please follow the following procedure.

1. Open C# Corner in Chrome browser.
2. Click on the padlock.
   
   
   
   
3. Now, click on "valid" that is the link to the Certificate.
4. Now, a digital certificate window will open where you can see the "Issued by" information, i.e., Let's Encrypt Authority X3 in our case.
   
   
   

What is Let's Encrypt?

According to Let's Encrypt about page, Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority (CA), run for the public’s benefit. It is a service provided by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).

The key principles behind Let’s Encrypt are,

• Free
• Automatic
• Secure
• Transparent
• Open
• Cooperative

Steps to make your site HTTPS via Let's Encrypt

Step 1 - Generate CLI from the source code

1. First of all, download the source code of A Simple ACME Client for Windows, from the following link.
   A Simple ACME Client for Windows
2. Now, open the source code in Visual Studio.
3. Run your source code and you will get bin/debug directory where you will get complete Let's Encrypt CLI.
4. Copy your debug folder and move to the server where your site is hosted.

Step 2 - Now, on the server, you have to perform the following steps.

1. Open command prompt in administrator mode.
2. We have to run letsencrypt.exe CLI to make our site HTTPS.
   
   
   
   
3. Now, from CMD, go to the particular directory where letsencrypt.exe CLI is present.
   
   
   
   
4. After that, choose the option according to whatever you want to do.
   
   
   
   
5. If you want to generate a new certificate, then press "N".
   
   
6. Now, you need to select what type of certificate you want to generate.
   
   
   
   You can select 1 for now.
   
   
7. Now, in the next option, you will get all IIS bindings. Select the number of domains for which you want to make HTTPS.
   
   
8. Automatically, HTTPS Binding entry will be available in your IIS. There's nothing more you have to do.
   
   

That is how we enabled HTTPS on C# Corner

Note - If you don't want to make HTTPS using CLI, don't worry; you can use the following link.

https://www.sslforfree.com/

You can read more about Let's Encrypt here: Let's Encrypt Documentation