Domain Name and SSL Cert

[rhys.ci.hughes]

Hello all.

I am setting up some lab test systems and want to do it all properly.

Can anyone recommend any way to pick up a free FQDN and SSL. This area is not my strong point and I won’t get a budget to buy the above.

I can find sites that give you free domain name but linking the free domain name to the SSL Cert is what I am struggling with for my MiCollab server.

Any recommended Free SSL cert sites? I.e. Let’s Encrypt
Any good free domain name sites that are easy to link to the SSL CERT

Or is my understanding in this all wrong

Cheers






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tom2018]

Hi,

first of all you need a static ip of wich the FQDN can refer. You could also try this with some dynamic dns services, but this is sometimes very tricky. (Try DynDNS or No-IP etc.)
At some cheap Hosters a domain name is less then 1€ the month, think about it ;-)

In the next step you need an official cert for the given FQDN, this can be reached with the free of charge service from Let's Encrypt.

regards,
Tom

[dilkie]

if it's just a lab setup, you can create your own dummy domain and certificates. You have to run a local dns server and point all your test hosts to use that.

[boycey9]

I have used a free SSL cert before, the draw back was that they would only issue for 3 months so was a pain and you had to regularly renew. Cant remember the exact company I used but just googled it and there was a few options. All you needed was to authorise an email they sent to you.

[Dogbreath]

A Letsencrypt cert only lasts 90 days but MSL [or MiCollab, not sure which] supports it natively so will always renew itself. Letsencrypt on a lab system is absolutely feasible but LE isn't going to work with various dynamic DNS providers because LE limit how many requests come from each domain and you will be sharing that limit with all the other users of that domain.

Options:

• Buy a domain and buy a certificate - $20/year
• Free dynamic DNS and buy a certificate - $10/year
• Buy a domain and use Letsencrypt - $10/year
• Use your existing domain and use Letsencrypt - $0/year

If you can't afford the above then I don't know how you can afford licenses, resources to run it on, etc.

[dilkie]

LetsEncrypt requires that you have a public IP for the host you are trying to get a certificate for, it makes a connection to that dns entry to confirm. Not likely to work in a lab setup.