I’ve had a note on my “things to do that I should get around to but aren’t critical” board to secure my website. This involves getting a security certificate so that traffic is encrypted – not that this a big deal for me, but Google is pretty fired up about it.
So, I finally decided to get this set up last night.
I brewed a strong cup of tea, then logged into my hosting company’s portal. I noted my plan – Shared/Hatchling (it’s a small site) – and then clicked on the link for SSL Certificate.
And promptly got a message, “The Hosting panel is only for Shared accounts,”
(and the white zone it for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers. there’s no stopping in the red zone.)
Hmmm…
I wandered through the site a bit and kept getting tossed back to the same screen. So, I fired up a chat window and asked what’s up.
Turns out, the Hosting panel – and access to set up an SSL cert – is only for Shared/Baby accounts – or higher.
Sigh.
So, I needed to upgrade my hosting plan and that was going to cost me a pro-rated $40. I went over to the account settings, clicked the Upgrade button, and used the credit card on file to pay the $40. With some grumbling.
With that done, I went back to the panel and got started on the SSL. There was a lot of jargon and fine print – and when I got through that, there was a fee. So, I fired up the saved credit card again.
And got denied.
Hmmm… so, I’ve either hit a daily limit – which I doubted, it wasn’t that much – or Something Has Gone Wrong.
I got out the physical card and called the number on the back. After I verified my identity, they checked and found that my upgrade payment had tripped up the Fraud Detectors.
Even though I’ve used that same card every year to pay for my site renewals, it still looked suspicious. (Turns out the fraud department had called me, but my phone was on vibrate and I didn’t know I had a voice mail.)
They got things cleared for me and I went back to the hosting company site to finish up the SSL Cert.
And… it works!
Note the httpS – that’s the big deal.
I’m not entirely done yet – I still have to figure out how to route the traffic over to that side automatically – but I’m close.
And then I can cross that off the list.
Kind of ironic that me setting up the security on my website tripped up the security settings on my credit card.