Common questions about setting up HTTPS / SSL

Your website needs to use HTTPS, but you might not know what it is and why it's important.

What is HTTPS or SSL, and why do I need it?

The 'S' stands for Secure.

HTTPS encrypts the information passing between your website and its visitors. Web browsers typically show a padlock symbol at the top so you know your experience with a website is secure. Some browsers identify websites without HTTPS as being "insecure".

To enable HTTPS, a website has to be issued with a virtual 'SSL' certificate by a trusted provider.

On Aiir, we take care of requesting the certificate for you from our hosting provider AWS.

We've chosen them because they allow us to automate the whole process and we trust them to keep your certificate safe. You don't need an account with them, and there are no charges for setting this up.

AWS require all the websites we host to use HTTPS, so your website cannot 'go live' until this has been set up first

What will my website's address be once I've set up HTTPS?

Once you have set up HTTPS and put your website live, the URL will be the same, but begin with https://

Links beginning with http:// will still work — they will be automatically redirected.

I'm moving my existing website to Aiir - what do I need to know?

If the URL of your current website doesn't start with "www.' then traffic will be redirected to begin with "www." when you switch to Aiir.

This shouldn't cause you any problems.

I already have an SSL certificate, can I use that?

No, sorry. Only the certificate that is automatically created using our setup process can be used. You won't be able to download the certificate — it is held securely by our hosting provider AWS.

Why does my browser say my website is not fully secure, even when HTTPS is set up?

This happens when there is content somewhere on the page that is being loaded using HTTP, not HTTPS.

Open the developer console in your browser, and it will list the issues you need to address.

Check anywhere you've used an 'iframe' to embed content from another website. If the URL for the iframe ('src' attribute) doesn't begin 'https', the content will not load.

Check your live stream URL. Go to your player's settings, and ensure it begins 'https'. If it doesn't, contact your streaming provider and request a HTTPS URL.

Your website will not work in some very old browsers, including Internet Explorer on Windows XP. That's because they don't support the modern kind of SSL we use.

Can I disable HTTPS later if I don't want it?

This is no longer possible. It's generally a bad idea anyway, as it risks breaking links to your website, and can affect your ranking in search engines.