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GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

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Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#71
post #15

Timely... At work we use RapidSSL (a division of GeoTrust) for a handful of certs. Last night I received an email with a banner warning me, "Your certificate is ABOUT TO EXPIRE". The email goes on to list the expiration date as "Oct 12, 2011". Four months is certainly generous notice, but I've always taken this as a simple marketing attempt to maintain customer loyalty. Usually I take these emails as tickler reminder…

You might be interested to know they're even cheaper when purchased through a reseller, e.g.: http://www.namecheap.com/ssl-certificates/geotrust-ssl-certi... I suppose they think that since you're visiting their site directly, you wouldn't think (or know) to visit one of their reseller partners instead.

Most vendors who have channel partners don't want to compete with them, but they don't want to leave sales on the table, either. For bigger ticket items, the company generally sends you directly to a channel partners; for smaller ticket items, the company will often sell the item at "list" price and let the channel partners discount off of list.

Pretty standard operating procedure here and highly unlikely to be a comment on their customer's web savvy. :)

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#72
post #54

Any recommendations on where to buy a good ssl certificate?

http://www.startssl.com/ will give you a free ssl certificate for a single domain (actually, they'll give you one that covers a domain plus a single subdomain). Handy if you want to setup your own mailserver somewhere: the root certs are in all the main browsers & mail clients. You'll need to have your (web|mail)server serve up the intermediate cert as well as the leaf cert which can be a slight pain to setup, but ap…

The root cert is not in early versions of Android, due to a bug. I'm not sure when that was fixed. Unfortunately, you can't update root certificates in these versions.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#73
post #45
post #38

I never understood why GoDaddy has such a monopoly-like status - even in the startup scene. I've only used their services once (because someone transfered a domain to me and prefered to do this as GoDaddy-internal transfer), but the first thing I did was transfering the domain to another registrar (the one that I typically also use for my other domains). Reasons why I wouldn't use GoDaddy: GoDaddy is not really one o…

The guy that owns them has said/done some things that annoy me, too. That plus cheaper, less-hassle registrars were enough for me to avoid it.

He sold it a week ago.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230458400457642...

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#74
post #64

Okay, I use godaddy for domains and DNS. Never had a problem with them. But these 'godaddy sucks' posts and the godaddy buyout are starting to worry me. Who would you recommend as a replacement for registration and DNS?

The usual suspects are (in no particular order): Namecheap Name.com Moniker DNSimple Gandi I think i might be missing a few but these are the most popular i remember off the top of my head.

My local ISP is a Tucows reseller. Domain names aren't generally attributed to Local Business, but you might want to ask around your local user groups and organizations to see if there is a small company near you that does the same. My ISP charges a flat $10.00 USD for initial domains, renewals, and transfers, and they're nice people.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#75
post #46

Godaddy is he only place I've found "Extended Validation" certs at a reasonable price - $99 instead of $499+. I hate their website and crosselling, but I do appreciate as the author points out that they have people you can call - how many registrars have that? Are there any alternatives for EV certs that are not a ripoff?

How arduous was the EV process? What did you have to provide as proof? I tried to go down this route with Comodo and it was a colossal waste of time. The documents they require would make the FBI blush.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#76
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's cheaper than GoDaddy? All my .com and .net domains end up costing me $7.49. I'd love to know...

Cheap until you get roped into an auto-renewing thing with 3x the price you first paid. Why support a company like that? It's so slimy. Your cheap domains are effectively subsidized by GoDaddy preying on others.

We have a bank in the Netherlands that did the same with savings accounts and interest rates for them. The rates started high to draw people in and then lowered, till they had over 100 different savings accounts.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#77
post #72
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.startssl.com/ will give you a free ssl certificate for a single domain (actually, they'll give you one that covers a domain plus a single subdomain). Handy if you want to setup your own mailserver somewhere: the root certs are in all the main browsers & mail clients. You'll need to have your (web|mail)server serve up the intermediate cert as well as the leaf cert which can be a slight pain to setup, but ap…

The root cert is not in early versions of Android, due to a bug. I'm not sure when that was fixed. Unfortunately, you can't update root certificates in these versions.

Are there any phones out there that can't be at least updated to Froyo now, whether officially or not?

If you're geeky enough to want your own ssl cert then you're geeky enough to root your phone & install CyanogenMod.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#78
post #4

HAHAHAHA. Well, it actually gets worse. If you cancel the auto renewal, then go into Google and search for "ssl certificate" you'll get a wonderful ad (at the very top) that is for $12.99 (with the quote "why pay more"). You can then buy that cert and it gives you the exact same thing as the renewal (admittedly a bit more work, but is the convenience of auto-renewal really worth $37?). Been doing this for the last 3…

$12.99? Why pay more? Namecheap has SSL certs for $9/year.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#79
post #55
post #38

I never understood why GoDaddy has such a monopoly-like status - even in the startup scene. I've only used their services once (because someone transfered a domain to me and prefered to do this as GoDaddy-internal transfer), but the first thing I did was transfering the domain to another registrar (the one that I typically also use for my other domains). Reasons why I wouldn't use GoDaddy: GoDaddy is not really one o…

GoDaddy's UI is terrible. I use Dreamhost for all my domain registrations and most DNS. Great admin interface compared to the competition, still very cheap, domain transfer codes plainly visible, no unlocking or calling or any of that. You just transfer it away. They are the most honest of the bunch and you can move each part of your service off them as you outgrow it. Easiest to setup a domain for Google Apps too, j…

I used Dreamhost once, after I ended my hosting to move to a VPS, they locked me out of my administration panel completely. I still had my domain with them, but no access to it, and the website actually told me that I needed to open a hosting plan to get access. I had to go through their support process to get access (or really, to transfer out, there was no way I was staying after that).

I immediately transferred to Moniker - they're great, they let you configure absolutely everything. I think what I learned was to stay away from companies that do both domains and hosting. If they just do domains, they understand that you are always going to be sending your traffic elsewhere.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#80
The same thing happened with a Network Solutions hosting plan I had. They auto-renewed me when I had over one month before renewal. Their service had been horrible on Drupal sites. Just the DNS resolution to my hosting account was taking 2-3 seconds. I enlisted an up-time monitoring service and found that my site was down frequently even while I was paying for this renewal I did not want. Shame such a dominant company in the 90s has basically laid the road map for shady hosting.
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