Dear OmegaNet/CAMEO EZ© Wholesale Website Clients:
In July, Google will make a major change in its Chrome browser which MAY affect you. The change concerns how Chrome displays HTTP and HTTPS (SSL secure) web pages. Until now, only pages where personal information was entered (and especially payment information) were required to be HTTPS, but for several years now, Google has been pushing toward making EVERY web page HTTPS (more info from Google).
For a website to be HTTPS, a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate must be purchased and installed on the server where the domain is hosted.
How We Do It Now
Currently we use a shared “wildcard” (*.cameoez.com) SSL certificate to make selected pages HTTPS, such as Login, Registration, Update Account, Checkout, etc. where customers input sensitive information. These pages are already SSL secure (displayed as HTTPS and for which Chrome displays “Secure” in the address bar). As a result of this shared certificate, until now you have not needed to purchase your own SSL certificate each year. Ordinary product and information pages are not SSL secure, but are displayed as HTTP.
Until now, Google Chrome has simply displayed HTTP pages without the “Secure” notification in the address bar, but beginning in July, 2018, Chrome will display a “Not Secure” warning in the address bar of all HTTP pages, rather than just omitting “Secure.” The warning in Chrome will likely be alarming to your customers who use that browser.
What Will Change for OmegaNet/CAMEO EZ Websites?
As a result of Google’s July change, ALL PAGES on CAMEO EZ© wholesale websites will be REQUIRED to have an SSL certificate so they can be displayed as HTTPS instead of HTTP. You MAY be required to have your own SSL individual certificate for your domain name. (see Cost Information below)To find out if you must pay for your own certificate, see “What Does This Mean for You” below.
Our current server software version does not allow SSL certificates on multiple domain names on one IP address, but we have formulated a plan that will satisfy Google Chrome.
What Does This Mean for You?
- Whether your site must have its own SSL certificate depends on your “website type.” You can identify your website type in Admin Console > Account Setup > Account Type. Your Website Type will be “Attached Site,” “Redirected Website,” or “Complete Site.” If yours is an “Attached Site” site, number 2 below applies to you. If your site is either “Redirected Website” or “Complete Website”, number 3 below applies to you. We may also contact you with specific information for your situation.
- “Attached Site”: You will NOT have to pay for an SSL certificate; you can continue using the cameoez.com shared wildcard certificate. “Attached Site” means you have another website (Probably a retail site hosted by another company. Presumably you already have an SSL certificate for your domain on your retail site.) where your domain home page is hosted and you merely link over to the CAMEO EZ© log-in page for “Wholesale” or “Retailer Login”. Your wholesale pages currently have the address http://username.cameoez.com/… OmegaNet will make all your pages https://username.cameoez.com … to satisfy Google Chrome. You don’t have to do anything for your wholesale site.
- “Redirected Website” or “Complete Website”: If your site’s domain name (yourname.com) goes directly to your wholesale website, then you will be required to pay for an SSL certificate for your domain name. OmegaNet will purchase and install this for you and bill you or charge your credit card on file. We do have to install the certificate. Installation includes:
- generating a “Certficate Signing Request” (CSR) which can only be generated on our server.
- properly installing the purchased certificate and keys in the proper location on the server.
How Much Will the Certificate Cost?
OmegaNet will charge $140 (including installation) for a certificate, which is good for one year. Our vendor is considered the best protection and the best value according to a “Best Five” list for SSL security.
Is this an annual expense?
Yes. We have been able to save you this expense until now with our shared certificate, but Google has made it impossible to continue this way. You will be billed or charged again one year from the date that we set up your site with your own certificate. The price may be different, depending on what we are able to negotiate with our vendor.
Can I buy my own certificate?
No, we aren’t allowing this, simply because, with hundreds of websites, there is too much for us to keep track of, doing all these sites at one time, plus we are getting a discount because we are buying so many and if you bought your own, we would still have to install it, for which we would charge you, so you wouldn’t save anything.
NOTE: SSL Certificates are not transferrable from one server to another.
Is this Mandatory?
Yes. You don’t want Google Chrome users seeing the scary warning. That will hurt your sales.
More Than One Domain Name?
What if you have more than one domain name associated with your site? Will you need to purchase an SSL certificate for each of them? Technically you would, but if your domain names are just variations of the same name, we can set your site to convert to what you consider your “main” domain name when customers type in one of your secondary domain names so you only have to pay for one certificate.
When is the Deadline?
We have a lot of work to do to be ready, but we will begin purchasing certificates and applying them to domains as soon as we can with a target to have everything complete by mid June.
Questions?
Contact Gary Ivey (gary@omeganetinc.net or 770-482-3012 ext. 104) with questions.